Floating Coast

An Environmental History of the Bering Strait

By: Bathsheba Demuth

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

The first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada, Floating Coast breaks away from familiar narratives to provide a fresh and fascinating perspective on an overlooked landscape.

The unforgiving territory along the Bering Strait had long been home to humans - the Inupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Russia - before Americans and Europeans arrived with revolutionary ideas for progress. Rapidly, these frigid lands and waters became the site of an ongoing experiment: How, under conditions of extreme scarcity, would the great modern ideologies of capitalism and communism control and manage the resources they craved?

Drawing on her own experience living with and interviewing indigenous people in the region, as well as from archival sources, Demuth shows how the social, the political, and the environmental clashed in this liminal space. Through the lens of the natural world, she views human life and economics as fundamentally about cycles of energy, bringing a fresh and visionary spin to the writing of human history.

Floating Coast is a profoundly resonant tale of the dynamic changes and unforeseen consequences that immense human needs and ambitions have brought, and will continue to bring, to a finite planet.

©2019 Bathsheba Demuth (P)2020 Tantor

Great book

I really compelling human and environmental history of the Bering Sea. Well written and narrated. Highly recommended if you are interested in the area.

Perspective

This is a history that imparts the gift of perspective, to truly reflect with wisdom on the dominant 20th century imperial visions of communism and capitalism that continue to shape our world and suppress our ability to imagine something better. The writing is clear and compelling, creating a story and narrative that clears the clutter of contemporary political commentary. Sit with this history and stand on the edge of the world, and from there perhaps will come a vision of what might be.

This is a masterwork

Demuth’s examination of this remarkable region is an engaging and valuable primer for those who work for agencies, the conservation community and anyone interested in Berengia’s complicated ecological, cultural, and political history. Extremely well written and narrated. I’m recommending this to all my colleagues and kin - especially those heading north.

The contrast between the native people, the Soviets and the Americans

The authors amazing way with words. She was able to remain articulate among a tragic history.  It all seemed so inevitable, and also so foolish.

Stunning work of history and literature

I cannot think of another recent work that is both path breaking environmental history and breathtaking work of literature. The research is deep and the argument persuasive, this would be an important work if the writing were pedestrian. But the writing is luminous. So many times I stopped to savor a phrase, so perfect. This is the best work of history I've read in years.