Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Paris Under Water

Paris under Water: how the City of Light survived the Great Flood of 1910 by Jeffrey Jackson 2009

If you have ever been to Paris you must read this intriguing book which details the catastrophic Great Flood of 1910. The author Jeffrey Jackson is an Associate Professor, Department of History at Rhodes College in Memphis,TN. Jackson is an expert on this topic as he spent thirteen years conducting research in Parisian archives. In 2007 he was named “Top Young Historian in the United States”. Jackson tells the tale in such a way that the reader gets a real taste of the pain and suffering that this flood imposed on the Parisians.
Several days of rain in January 1910 resulted in higher than normal water levels on the Seine and its tributaries. This rainfall resulted in flooding of streets, homes and businesses around the greater Paris area and areas up and down the river Seine. Parisians of all backgrounds allied to save their city and one another. Jackson uses many original source materials to put a human face on this catastrophe, and the reader is caught up in the pain and destruction that this flood imposed on the pre-World War I citizens of France.