Hailed as a "nonfiction epic . . . in the tradition of Jared Diamond's
best-seller Collapse, and Simon Winchester's Atlantic" (Dallas
Morning News), Jack E. Davis's The Gulf is "by turns informative,
lyrical, inspiring and chilling for anyone who cares about the future of
'America's Sea' " (Wall Street Journal). Illuminating America's
political and economic relationship with the environment from the age of
the conquistadors to the present, Davis demonstrates how the Gulf's
fruitful ecosystems and exceptional beauty empowered a growing nation.
Filled with vivid, untold stories from the sportfish that launched
Gulfside vacationing to Hollywood's role in the country's first offshore
oil wells, this "vast and welltold story shows how we made the Gulf . .
. [into] a 'national sacrifice zone' " (Bill McKibben). The first and
only study of its kind, The Gulf offers "a unique and illuminating
history of the American Southern coast and sea as it should be written"
(Edward O. Wilson).