Readers of my book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875-1930 (LSU, 2023) sometimes ask what happened to river people in the 1930s. Below is a link to a recent article by Scot McFarlane that sheds light on the question. His article, “A New Deal for River People,” looks at the displacement of river people during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The article appears in a special issue of the open access journal, Modern American History. Scot is among a younger generation of river historians in the United States. I look forward to reading his book, The River That Made Texas: The Forgotten History of the Trinity (University of North Carolina Press), when it comes out in Fall 2026.

A New Deal for River People | Modern American History | Cambridge Core