The Edge: The Pressured Past and Precarious Future of California’s Coast

The title The Edge of this book refers to the entire California coastline. It is a very thorough, comprehensive, and very well written book by two prominent authors, marine life photographer and environmentalist Kim Steinhardt and Professor Gary Griggs. It has obviously taken years of research and traveling many times along the coast to compile this book. The result is excellent. In fifteen chapters, the authors covered everything worth writing about. They introduce themselves in two longish chapters, each describing their experience with the coast from childhood on, including interesting stories. Their writing is very good, very readable. The book is nicely illustrated with many photographs showing the large number of aspects of the California coast. The reader will find everything here related to the coast: geology, oceanography, marine life, agriculture, politics, economy, fishing, and history. In addition, the authors give short treatises on topics like how tides form, how petroleum is formed, oil production, and oil spills. At the end of each chapter you’ll find a brief essay from people living along the coast and intimately connected with it (how did the authors collect these?). This book will give readers interested in the coast weeks and months of reading material.