The Control of Nature was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1989. The book consists of three long essays, each examining a place where human engineering confronts natural force: “Atchafalaya” (the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to prevent the Mississippi River from changing course); “Cooling the Lava” (Icelandic villagers spraying seawater on advancing lava flows); and “Los Angeles Against the Mountains” (the debris basins built to catch the mud and rock that flows down from the San Gabriel Mountains after fires).
“Atchafalaya” is the masterpiece of the three: McPhee explains that the Mississippi River is attempting to shift its course to the Atchafalaya (a shorter, steeper route to the Gulf of Mexico) and that the Army Corps of Engineers has built a structure at Old River to prevent this. If the structure fails, New Orleans and Baton Rouge lose their river — and with it, their reason for existing. The engineering is heroic; the geological force is inexorable; and the question is not whether the river will change course but when.
The book’s cumulative argument: human civilization’s attempt to control nature is simultaneously necessary (we cannot abandon cities to floods and lava), magnificent (the engineering achievements are extraordinary), and ultimately futile (geological time always wins). McPhee presents this paradox without resolution — the ambition is admirable, the scale is awesome, and the eventual failure is certain.
Collecting The Control of Nature
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1989): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $30–$75
- Very good: $15–$30
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Humanity vs. Earth
The Control of Nature (1989) examines three cases where humans attempt to control geological and natural forces: the Army Corps of Engineers’ battle to keep the Mississippi River from changing course at the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana; the residents of Heimaey, Iceland, who fought a volcanic eruption with seawater in 1973; and the debris-basin system protecting Los Angeles from catastrophic mudflows. McPhee’s implicit argument — that nature will ultimately win — gives the book a prophetic quality in an era of climate change. The Atchafalaya/Mississippi section is among the finest pieces of environmental journalism ever written.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the Mississippi changed course since the book? Not yet, but the ongoing struggle McPhee describes continues. Every major flood tests the Old River Control Structure, and engineers acknowledge that the river’s eventual capture by the Atchafalaya is a question of when, not if.