PDF Download The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, by Lena Lencek, Gideon Bosker
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The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, by Lena Lencek, Gideon Bosker
PDF Download The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, by Lena Lencek, Gideon Bosker
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An absorbing, original account of the beach--its history, customs, spectacles, and how it became the undisputed Nirvana for pleasure seekers.
Turquoise water, pillowy sand, and a warm, salty breeze--today the beach is regarded as the best possible place to restore body and soul. However, this has not always been the case. In other centuries the beach was considered a remote, terrifying wasteland on the margins of civilization. In their entertaining, elegant, and illuminating account, Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker trace the four-billion-year evolution of the place where land, water, and humans meet.
Embedded in the narrative are the histories of sexuality, health, fashion, sport, the rise of the great resorts--St. Tropez, Catalina, Newport, Miami Beach--and the beach tales of Columbus, D-Day troops, and castaways Cook, Melville, and Swinburne. Including a marvelous selection of images evoking the beach's hypnotic appeal--Impressionist paintings, archival photographs, advertising art, and postcards--and an Appendix of the world's most beautiful, unspoiled beaches, The Beach will fascinate any reader from Coney Island to Bora Bora.
"Engagingly eccentric [and] briskly good-humored ... [an] entertaining, handsomely illustrated book." --The New York Times Book Review (front page)
"The perfect beach book, any time of the year." --Chicago Tribune
- Sales Rank: #1744376 in Books
- Published on: 1999-06-01
- Released on: 1999-05-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 2
- Dimensions: 7.88" h x .75" w x 5.34" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Amazon.com Review
In The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker chart the history of beaches from the time of their formation to the present, examining the shifting significance of beaches to Western cultures through the centuries. Lencek and Bosker are capable historians whose love of beaches shines through in their writing. They assert that the way people approach the beach reflects their culture's current beliefs about sexuality, class divisions, aesthetics, and leisure. At times, the authors go a bit overboard in proving how important beaches are to society, but it is easy to forgive them because this book is crammed with interesting tidbits and choice sentences, such as, "The sands of Oregon's Florence Beach squeak with the high-pitched bark of distant chihuahuas." Great old movie posters, photographs, and odd tourist brochures are sprinkled throughout the book, enlivening the text.
After a chapter on the geological makeup of sand and beaches, the authors chronicle the waxing and waning popularity of beaches through the ages. It seems that people did not always think of the beach as a good place to kick back, get a tan, and leaf through a book with lots of pictures. During the Middle Ages, many Europeans avoided the ocean in part because they believed water was connected to the horrible plagues that occasionally devastated the region. Later, an entrepreneur convinced the British upper class that drinking saltwater was a good way to cure "windiness of the spirit" and other ailments. Gradually, the rich figured out that the beach is not only healthful, it's fun! Technological innovations made it easier to get to the beach, and so more people of all classes went there. Swimsuit styles changed as textiles, sexual mores, and ideals of beauty evolved. This book should appeal to many readers because it is packed with good tidbits to ponder between naps on the beach, things such as the origins of suntan lotion, the development of the Australian crawl, and the singing dunes of Kauai, Hawaii. --Jill Marquis
From Publishers Weekly
Lencek and Bosker (Making Waves) have turned out a thorough but often leaden chronicle of what "the beach" has meant to humankind from Roman nobles to WWII assault troops to modern eco-tourists. Their scholarly approach seems tedious in service of a normally lively subject. Details noting coastal zoning laws enacted by the ancient Greeks and England's priggish turn-of-the-century approach to public bathing are interesting, but the story gathers momentum only in contemporary days. Accounts of America's iconographical retreats are noteworthyAConey Island, Miami Beach, Southern California, HawaiiAare covered, as is the evolution of swimwear: "The swimsuit on the beach tells the square-inch-by-square-inch history of how skin went public in modern times." But the authors become highhanded, bemoaning the fallen status of the modern beach vacation; ecotourists are part of a "highly contrived ritual," while luxury travelers are "entirely divorced from nature." Still, the authors see fit to include such resorts as Cancun's Ritz-Carlton in their appendix of recommended beach stays. Waves, sand, bikini babes, surfer boys, sun-worshipping hedonistsAthere is enough material here for a bit of fun in "the history of paradise on Earth," but this treatment turns out to be disappointingly dry. Illustrated.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Len cek and Bosker are professional academics (of Russian history and clinical medicine, respectively) who write informative books on popular culture for a mass audience. Their latest contribution to cultural studies focuses on the different roles that the beach experience has played in shaping, and sometimes defining, the consumption of leisure. "The sensations of the beach are as primary as life itself," they argue. "We are drawn to the beach to return to our conscious mind the sensation of the body?not in the private, compartmentalized world of bath or boudoir...but at the infinitely creative junction of elements where habit and convention dissipate and imagination once again takes over." Their coverage of beach consumption is nothing if not exhaustive?their survey of "paradise" ranges from the geological formation of beaches and the function of beaches in the ancient world to the differential status of beaches in the 20th century and the use of beach imagery in the youth movies of the 1960s. This would be an obvious choice for anyone who wants to take a serious book to the beach; it is also a valuable addition to the literature on the cultural politics of leisure-time activities.?Kent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting
By Suz
Very interesting and detailed. Not a light read, so I'm reading it a little at a time.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A good 'beach book' on the beach
By A Customer
Lencek and Bosker describe themselves as specialists in popular culture and that they are. Their book on the history of the beach should be properly be described as history lite.
The central theme of the work is what people have and are doing on it and in it, what do they wear to the beach and not wear to it, etc. In short this is a social history of the beach with only passing references to its many other aspects such as geology, economics, politics, history, ecology, etc.
The book also looks at the beach at length only in the U.S., the U.K. and on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The social history of the beach in the rest of the world, were in fact most beaches are located, is never discussed other than in passing.
For those going to the beach with time to spend reading this is a fine book. For those looking for serious history you may wish to look elsewere.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
The best history of the evolution of beach vacations!
By Mandy Schmitt
I finally found a book that takes the reader through the history of society's love for the beach! It is a wonderfully light and easy read that reveals tons of interesting information about beach going. As a sand dune ecologist, I was very impressed with the representation of the present problems facing beach development. The historical trace enables the reader to understand why we keep pouring money into a disappearing shoreline!
See all 7 customer reviews...
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