Since before recorded history, people have congregated near water. But as growing populations around the globe continue to flow toward the coasts on an unprecedented scale and climate change raises water levels, our relationship to the sea has begun to take on new and potentially catastrophic dimensions. The latest generation of coastal dwellers lives largely in ignorance of the history of those who came before them, the natural environment, and the need to live sustainably on the world’s shores. Humanity has forgotten how to live with the oceans.
In The Human Shore, a magisterial account of 100,000 years of seaside civilization, John R. Gillis recovers the coastal experience from its origins among the people who dwelled along the African shore to the bustle and glitz of today’s megacities and beach resorts. He takes readers from discussion of the possible coastal location of the Garden of Eden to the ancient communities that have existed along beaches, bays, and bayous since the beginning of human society to the crucial role played by coasts during the age of discovery and empire. An account of the mass movement of whole populations to the coasts in the last half-century brings the story of coastal life into the present. Along the way, Gillis addresses humankind’s changing relationship to the sea from an environmental perspective, laying out the history of the making and remaking of coastal landscapes—the creation of ports, the draining of wetlands, the introduction and extinction of marine animals, and the invention of the beach—while giving us a global understanding of our relationship to the water. Learned and deeply personal, The Human Shore is more than a history: it is the story of a space that has been central to the attitudes, plans, and existence of those who live and dream at land’s end. Show moreSince before recorded history, people have congregated near water. But as growing populations around the globe continue to flow toward the coasts on an unprecedented scale and climate change raises water levels, our relationship to the sea has begun to take on new and potentially catastrophic dimensions. The latest generation of coastal dwellers lives largely in ignorance of the history of those who came before them, the natural environment, and the need to live sustainably on the world’s shores. Humanity has forgotten how to live with the oceans.
In The Human Shore, a magisterial account of 100,000 years of seaside civilization, John R. Gillis recovers the coastal experience from its origins among the people who dwelled along the African shore to the bustle and glitz of today’s megacities and beach resorts. He takes readers from discussion of the possible coastal location of the Garden of Eden to the ancient communities that have existed along beaches, bays, and bayous since the beginning of human society to the crucial role played by coasts during the age of discovery and empire. An account of the mass movement of whole populations to the coasts in the last half-century brings the story of coastal life into the present. Along the way, Gillis addresses humankind’s changing relationship to the sea from an environmental perspective, laying out the history of the making and remaking of coastal landscapes—the creation of ports, the draining of wetlands, the introduction and extinction of marine animals, and the invention of the beach—while giving us a global understanding of our relationship to the water. Learned and deeply personal, The Human Shore is more than a history: it is the story of a space that has been central to the attitudes, plans, and existence of those who live and dream at land’s end. Show moreJohn R. Gillis is the author of Islands of the Mind; A World of Their Own Making: Myth Ritual, and the Quest for Family Values; and Commemorations. A professor of history emeritus at Rutgers University, he now divides his time between two coasts: Northern California and Maine.
"Beginning with the appearance of modern Homo sapiens approximately
164,000 years ago, Gillis moves beyond the written records of
conventional history to draw on insights from underwater
archaeology, physical anthropology, and other fields. Boldly
revising familiar narratives of human origins and development, he
traces the cultural and material pasts of 'our edge species.' . . .
Gillis ranges widely--crossing temporal and spatial boundaries,
connecting "prehistory" to modern history, and touching down on
coastal locales around the world. He does so with remarkable
concision: this sophisticated, multimillennial narrative clocks in
at just under 200 pages."-- "Raritan"
"Reaching back into the days when early hominids became human, The
Human Shore also looks forward to what will happen if we don't
change how we relate to seacoasts. The book represents a fitting
capstone to the career of a remarkable historian whose arc of
interests has anticipated two key, entwined strands in his
discipline--the rise of environmental history and global
history--and whose work has long exemplified how, in our changing
present, the ways we imagine the past can and must change as well.
. . . As befits a historian who has 'grown only more and more aware
of how much history is an imaginative activity, ' what most
distinguishes his work is the depth he brings to combining the arc
of human imagination with its effects--to synthesizing our thinking
about seacoasts with the material history of how those ideas will
shape the prospects of the planet."
-- "Chronicle of Higher Education"
"In The Human Shore, John R. Gillis leads the reader on an
interesting trip through time showing us how early humans led
stable lives as hunter-gatherers at the edge of the sea, through
the eras of coastwise exploration and industrialization, to today's
high priced, ocean-view and beach-front real estate. A readable
consideration of the changing perceptions and utilization of the
shore, The Human Shore will appeal to a variety of readers." --C.
H. Hobbs "author of The Beach Book: Science of the Shore"
"In The Human Shore, John Gillis offers a sweeping analysis of
coastal communities from the Old Testament to the Japanese tsunami.
This inclusive and wide-ranging book will be read by those
interested in the ocean edge either professionally or by avocation
and it will have a deep impact on those of us who teach about
coasts. It is a pleasure to see the culture and science of our
shores dovetailed into a history of such authority and grace. This
will be required reading."--John R. Stilgoe "Harvard
University"
"As populations crowd toward the ocean's edge and the sea
encroaches menacingly toward the land, John R. Gillis looks at the
history of the world from a fresh perspective and enables readers
to see it in a new light. That he has managed to do so in a single
conceptual work is nothing short of astounding."
--Felipe Fernandez-Armesto "author of Civilizations: Culture,
Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature"
"This provocative and wide-ranging book is a timely reminder that
the relationship with the sea stands at the center of the history
of humanity."
--David Abulafia "author of The Great Sea: A History of the
Mediterranean"
"Thoughtful, informed, and eloquent; in The Human Shore John Gillis
has captured the human yearning for that fragile interface between
land and sea. In the process, he reveals a dynamic environment
quite at odds with humanity's lust to possess nature. As Gillis so
beautifully writes, we must learn "to live with rather than simply
on our shores." --Robert M. Hazen "author of The Story of Earth:
The First 4.5 Billion Years"
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