Steamboat Era

S.L. Kotar of St. Louis has been writing (together with J.E. Gessler) for more than four decades, beginning with scripts for television’s Gunsmoke. The late J.E. Gessler lived in St. Louis.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Preface      1. The “Invention of the Devil”      2. Keelboats and Barges: The “Arks” of the New World      3. Onward to the “Father of Waters”: The Fulton-Livingston Patent      4. The Meschasipi—Or Is That the “Mississipi”?      5. “St. Looy” and the Upper Mississippi      6. A World Unto Their Own: The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers      7. Navigating the Inland Western Waterways      8. The Trades and the Trade-Offs      9. Economic Conditions During the Steamboat Era      10. Making Money on the Rivers      11. Man Overboard! Steamboat Disasters on Western Waterways      12. The Steamboat Race Is On!      13. The Development of Steamboat Crews      14. Deckhands: A Distinctive Class of Casual Workers      15. Steamboat Gothic: The Florid and the Ornate      16. “My satisfaction was complete”: First-Class Passengers      17. Steamboat Diversions      18. “Just the bar’ necessities, ma’am”      19. The Nameless Masses: Deck Passengers      20. An International Incident      21. Potions, Purging and Practitioners      22. (In)Famous Steamboat Cities      23. The Roaring ’50s: The Railroads Come Calling      Appendix A: Glossary      Appendix B: Original Accounts of Steamboat Disasters      Chapter Notes      Bibliography      Index

“colorful, anecdotal, and interesting...recommended”—Choice