Coastlines: The Epic History of Humanity’s Greatest Frontier

From the award-winning and bestselling author of Metropolis, an inspiring narrative tracing the significance of the coastline in our planet’s history that asks: What if the story of civilization wasn’t written on land, but where land meets sea?

“Coastlines have held us in the grip for millennia,” writes Ben Wilson at the start of his globe-spanning ode to the narrow strip separating land and sea. “Yet only now are we beginning to understand how deeply they have shaped human life.”

Though we identify as a land-based species, we have always adapted to the ocean’s energies and resources, respecting its risks while harvesting its rewards. Wilson argues that the coast is not only the source of life on our planet, but was the birthplace of civilization itself, from ancient fishing societies and lawless port cities to contemporary fragile wetlands and eroding beaches. Indeed, humanity’s future largely depends on our ability to protect this vital realm.

Coastlines takes readers through history and around the world, introducing prehistoric cave dwellers in South Africa responsible for the earliest known artistic expression; imperial societies shaped by whoever mastered the coast and controlled the movement of goods and people; mangrove ecosystems that sequester carbon many times faster per acre than rainforests; and the Tlingit nations of the Pacific Northwest, whose annual herring roe celebration underscores our essential relationship to the restless shore. Ben Wilson weaves history, anthropology, and geology into an epic narrative that recenters the coast as the world’s most under-explored engine of migration, exchange, empire, and innovation. With engrossing detail, he challenges us to understand and preserve this most essential part of our natural world.