Thomas Ruys Smith

River of Dreams covers some interesting territory, but the dense, academic writing makes it a slog to get through. I appreciate the work that went into researching the material and the effort to bust some long-standing myths about early American history along the Mississippi. I'd recommend it for anyone who has a deep and abiding interesting in the Mississippi, but other people should read Wicked River or other books where the history is written in a way that is more accessible.

With the caveat that I only read the antebellum portion of this very capable history of New Orleans, I found the work had a strong combination of facile and adept narrative and a wonderful particularity, which is the stuff of which great histories are made. This work is readable in a single sitting, but memorable for weeks after.