American Coasts: Past and Future

Before there were coasts there were shores. In this talk, John Gillis explores the emergence of modern coasts, which, beginning in the eighteenth century, displaced older notions of shore. The creation of coasts has been a global phenomenon, but in this talk Prof. Gillis focuses on the American experience. He examines the effects of coasts on America’s natural environment and on the human populations whose first home was the shore, revealing the predicaments we face today.

John Gillis is Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University. He received his PhD from Stanford University and has taught at Stanford, Princeton, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has written numerous books, including YOUTH AND HISTORY: TRADITION AND CHANGE IN EUROPEAN AGE RELATIONS, 1750-PRESENT (1974), A WORLD OF THEIR OWN MAKING: MYTH, RITUAL, AND THE QUEST FOR FAMILY VALUES (1996), ISLANDS OF THE MIND: HOW THE HUMAN IMAGINATION CREATED THE ATLANTIC WORLD (2004), and THE HUMAN SHORE: SEACOASTS IN HISTORY (2012)

The event is jointly sponsored by the UCSB Department of History and the Center for Cold War Studies and International History.

hm 4/10/13, 4/16