Paul Schneider (1) (1962–)

Paul Schneider’s Old Man River is a book that defies easy categorization. It touches on history, geography, geology, archaeology, and flood-control engineering—with elements of travel narrative and popular natural history thrown in—but is not, strictly speaking, about any of those things. The geographic scope of the book is equally broad: not just the river itself, but its tributaries and drainage basin, which encompasses nearly half of North America. Old Man River, like Walt Whitman, show more contains multitudes.

How well all this works for you will depend, to a great extent, on what you want out of the book. Old Man River is neither a conventional, steadily paced narrative history, like John Barry’s Rising Tide, nor a sharply delineated but well-rounded study of a place, like John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens. It is a loosely organized collection of self-contained, stand-alone pieces—some chapter-length, others little more than vignettes—that suggests a more accurate subtitle might have been: “Things about the history of the Mississippi Basin that interested me.” Antebellum river pirates thus get attention out of all proportion to their historical significance, while the drier subject of the Mississippi’s role in industrialization and the rise of the “rust belt” goes begging. The discovery of the famous Folsom and Clovis (NM) archaeological sites in the 1920s lose most of their historical context, and are related instead to Schneider’s own discoveries of Native American artifacts.

None of this makes Old Man River a bad book, or even an unsuccessful one. Schneider writes beautifully, and readers whose interests match his will likely be enthralled. It is, however, a book more likely to please fans of literary nonfiction than those seeking a serious, detailed study of the Mississippi and its impact on the humans around it. show less

A big sprawling book as wide as the Mississippi drainage in its scope, and as meandering as the lower course of the river. Beginning five hundred million years ago, Schneider briefly traces the history of the land through drifting and rifting continents, seaways, and mountain ranges to the formation of the proto-Mississippi sixty five million years ago. He then leaps forward to 1841 and the discovery of dinosaur fossils in Missouri. Then it's back and forth through Folsom points and show more glaciations, early civilizations and the author's own wanderings, Spanish and French exploration, and (eventually) the Civil War. The short chapters keep the narrative moving, and if there is more coverage of the east half of the drainage and its relatively recent human history than I would have liked, as opposed to the westward expansion - well, I suppose an author can't please everyone. I did eventually read the whole book and mostly enjoyed it, but for me it's not a keeper. YMMV. show less

Review: The Enduring Shore by Paul Schneider.

This is a book on the history of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket which I have visited many times over the years. The book is narrated by the author taking the reader on a tour of history while he travels around these coastal shores in a kayak remembering generations of people passing down varieties of events, adventures, culture, and expressing more on the economy aspect of this area which was whale hunting. There isn’t any part of show more the whales that was thrown away, not even the head. I thought it was interesting and fascinating. Schneider has written about the Adirondack wilderness as vast and striking times of human dramas from the romantic to the terrifying ever changing information in detail starting around the late 1600’s to the early 1800’s.

Most of the information and storytelling was written in a chronological dense style to extremes of to much data. This made the book slow pace and at times overbearing. However, I still enjoyed what I read. After I got past the early 1700’s I started acknowledging some of the places that has not changed dramatically over the years. Schneider used some humor in some of his storytelling about the encounters with the Indians, misguided settlers, whaling adventures, sinking ships, even as far back as the Pilgrim’s and the Mayflower which these types of stories kept my interest immensely. He described in detail how the coastal shores had deteriorated or the land altered its shape within the years and how people changed over time, some for the better and some just getting by, day by day. Fishing has never been at the top for an annuity high paying job….

This area of New England is tourist attraction and many people came across the ocean in the 1600’s and this is where they settled and called home. In the book Schneider stimulates stories of the region with tidal rhythm describing the cycles of marshlands, estuaries, bays, and ocean beaches. While kayaking he takes the reader along stretches of the Great Beach, around the ever-changing Pleasant Bay, and through passages of the Cape, the Elizabeth Islands, and Martha’s Vineyard detailing both history and landscape. I did enjoy the storytelling, landmark information , and I remembered the feeling of the serene atmosphere of the people, the ocean scent, the slapping of the waves, and watching ships drift into the harbors and flowing with the breeze as ships sailed out to the vast ocean ahead… show less

Ala "Being John Malkovich", "Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend", this book should be entitle "Being Clyde Barrow". The author's continual imposition of a second person narrative on Clyde's supposed thoughts ("But you think...") merely gets in the way of a rich telling based, apparently, on stitching together many primary sources. In spite, Clyde comes across as a dangerous psycopath instead of any stripe of folk hero. More often than robbing banks, the Barrow Gang took to show more stealing Average Joe's car and breaking into the safes of small businesses. I especially liked learning the level of organized crime at work, including clipping telephone wires and sharing safe houses with Pretty Boy Flody, and how Barrow's crime spree went back to his early youth as Clyde "Schoolboy" Barrow. show less