academic seeking in-depth coverage of Califo rnia's shipwrecks, but may appeal to someone with a new or very general interest in che subject. From an archaeologist's perspective, I wo uld be interested to know if a given shipwreck has been located and scudied to bridge the gap berween history, archaeology, and today's need fo r a better recognition of Califo rnia's maritime landscape. The author does include interesting info rmation about che individuals associated wich chese shipwrecks and presents a more personal side to the narrative, which is refreshing. In shore, che book is well wriccen, easy to fo llow, and engages che reader
to seek out more details about each shipwreck's story to become more connected to our maritime past. DEBORAH E. MAruc Scicuace, Massachusetts
Between Land and Sea: 1he Adantic Coast and the Transformation ofNew England by C hristopher L. Pasto re (H arvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 201 4, 302pp, illus, notes, index, ISBN 978-0-674-28 14 17; $35hc) N arragansett Bay has played a fo rmative role in che development of che culcural identity of chose who live within ics reach-
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ew Release Now Available No Ordinary Being: W. Starling Burgess, ln11entor, Naval Architect, Poet, Aviation Pioneer By Llewellyn Howland Ill Published by David R. God ine Publishers , in association with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport
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es for centuries, as it represents a viral source of sustenance and cransporcatio n fo r chose who live alo ng ics sh ores. Rhode Islanders are steeped in boch a reliance on-and pride in-a place chat is reflected in Ch ris topher Pas tore's Between Land and Sea: The Atlantic Coast and the Transfo rmation of New England. Pastore's study uses boch the physical and intelleccual structuring of Narragansett Bay as a means to m ove through more than rwo hundred years of so uthern New England history (1 636 to 1849), when use practices of the es cuary and ics resources significandy reshaped che physical feacu res of the bay. While altering ics geographical landscape, chose who lived along its shores also struggled with imposing an intellectual structure on an amorphous and difficult-to-define space. As intellectual perceptions of che escuary's boundaries came into focus, the many ways the Europeans used che bay simultaneously turned the undefi ned littoral zone into a hard boundary berween land and sea. Over-hunting of beaver, che deposit of millions of units of nitrogen from lives tock waste, and ul timately industrial runoff altered the bay fro m a wide and nacurally fluctuating body of water to one much more contained. In Between Land and Sea, Pastore skillfully navigates the evolution of human interaction with N arragansett Bay, highlighting how the rol es of international debate and progress in science and technology have affected locals' undersranding and sense of their homeland and home waters. Pastore's inclusion of a wide range of primary so urces, materials not typically considered by historians, led him to make critical new interpretations about the region. For example, by studying contemporary observations and population estimates of livestock in the area, he concluded that elevated nitrogen levels during the colonial period likely ch anged the ecological dynamic of the bay's waters, contributing to algal blooms capable of suffocating and killing off both bottom feeders and fi nfish. Pas tore also places local intellectual perceptions of the region in to the larger histo rical context of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries. H e suggests that the 1730s debate in the Rbiode Island senate over the qualification of quahogs as animal, vegetable, or mineral was a local manifes tation of a larger scientific m ovement co classify the SEA HISTORY 150, SPRING 2015