Author James V. Swift served The Waterways Journal in St. Louis, Mo., 60 years and wrote the weekly "Old Boat Column." During those years he served in a variety of capacities with the publication and traveled extensively to cities along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries. He also had been active in numerous river transportation related organizations. During those years he traveled so many miles and met so many people that he had become affectionately known to many as "Mr. Waterways Journal." Swift brings to the book his broad understanding of how water resource development in America has benefited citizens throughout the nation in a variety of ways, such as water transportation, power production, recreation, municipal water supplies, irrigation, flood control, etc.
The profusely illustrated volume portrays rivers before and after the building of locks and dams, some of the nearly 4,000 war vessels that were manufactured along waterways and ferried by the Catfish Navy to the Gulf Coast, a variety of river barges and dozens of towboats. Further, he provides appendices to aid readers in further research. They include model builders, artists, museums, lists of river organizations and leaders, and a list of books favored by the author in the writing of his "Old Boat Column." Backing Hard Into River History is, then, a launching pad for those interested in additional serious river research. Readers have described by Swift's book as a valuable tool for river historians.
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