{"product_id":"paperback-3764","title":"Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck (HC\/DJ)","description":"\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLife on the Mississippi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand “flatboat era” of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSeven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck, whose infectious curiosity about history launched him across the West in a covered wagon pulled by mules and propelled his book about the trip, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Oregon Trail\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, to ten weeks on the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNew York Times\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ebestseller list. Now, Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePatience\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eaccompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands, and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe role of the flatboat in our country’s evolution is far more significant than most Americans realize. Between 1800 and 1840, millions of farmers, merchants, and teenage adventurers embarked from states like Pennsylvania and Virginia on flatboats headed beyond the Appalachians to Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Settler families repurposed the wood from their boats to build their first cabins in the wilderness; cargo boats were broken apart and sold to build the boomtowns along the water route. Joining the river traffic were floating brothels, called “gun boats”; “smithy boats” for blacksmiths; even “whiskey boats” for alcohol. In the present day, America’s inland rivers are a superhighway dominated by leviathan barges—carrying $80 billion of cargo annually—all descended from flatboats like the ramshackle \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePatience, which must avoid being crushed alongside their metal hulls.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Friends of the St Mary's County Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44081291788537,"sku":null,"price":3.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0475\/5806\/6334\/files\/100_2544_b096df25-19d1-4ed2-a404-c69e421973df.jpg?v=1698251295","url":"https:\/\/folstmarys.com\/products\/paperback-3764","provider":"Friends of the St Mary's County Library","version":"1.0","type":"link"}