Shadows on the Gulf

James Beard Award winner Jacobsen, whose American Terroir was a 2010 LJ Best Book, examines the Gulf region in his brilliant new work. While the Deepwater Horizon disaster was the initial impetus behind this book, it becomes quite apparent, as Jacobsen dives into the region's history, that the BP spill was just the latest in a long list of environmental injustices committed against the Gulf and its inhabitants. Jacobsen intertwines the customs, stories, and ways of life of the local people through his natural history of the region and descriptions of its bayous, plants, and animals, painting a full picture of how the area has been affected by the various devastations and detrimental "improvements" over the past few decades. The wonderfully vivid descriptions of the landscape will place readers right by Jacobsen's side as he describes the changes to the biodiversity, environment, and culture of the Gulf region.