Isaac’s Coastal History blogs
The Solway—originally sol + wath, the muddy ford—forms part of the border region between England and Scotland.[1] Its precise boundaries have vexed lawyers at times, “for the channels and sandbanks can change even within a day,” but perhaps two other descriptions can fill out the picture: it is “the most under-researched estuary in the UK” […]
The Coastal History Network are pleased to announce that they have been successful in their application for one of the Institute of Historical Research’s series of new online Partnership Seminars. ‘Coastal Connections’ will build upon the gathering momentum behind the Coastal History Network which was established earlier this year. Since its launch in April 2020 […]
The first Coastal History Blog post to engage with rivers was in 2014, when I blogged about the “Rivers of the Anthropocene” conference that I attended in Indianapolis. This conference later resulted in a fine interdisciplinary volume edited by the historian Jason Kelly and the other organizers. More recent scholarship on rivers includes the widely […]
![Vittore Carpaccio, “Hunting on the lagoon,” ca. 1490. [Getty Museum: public domain image] According to the Getty’s caption, these Venetian archers “use clay pellets rather than arrows in order to stun the birds and not damage their plumage.”](https://porttowns.port.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Vittore-Carpaccio_Hunting-on-the-lagoon_c1490-scaled-100x100.jpg "The Coastal History Blog No.50: Catching a Wave – Seven Years of the Coastal History Blog")
Most academic blogs are about an individual researcher’s particular work and interests. What I sought to do here, instead, was to use the blog as a placeholder or “proof of concept” for a possible journal and for a new network of professionals. This, necessarily, meant that I frequently read, and wrote, outside my comfort zone, […]
Sand has been a recurring theme here at the Coastal History Blog, from some of my earliest posts, “What are Beaches for?”, “The Political Economy of Sand,” and a bit more indirectly, “Coasts of the Anthropocene,” followed by a post inspired by my nearest coast, the Indiana Dunes State Park facing Lake Michigan. More recently, […]
My inter-library loan office is getting suspicious. I guess I should rephrase that; they got suspicious back in 2013, though they seem to have forgiven me since then. What set them off was my request for Patrik Alac’s The Bikini: A Cultural History. It was dutifully produced at the circulation desk, but I received an […]
