The beach
Subtitle: the history of paradise on earth
By: Lena Lenček and Gideon Bosker.
Contributors: Bosker, Gideon.
Publisher: Viking
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
Subjects: Beaches
Description: In their illuminating account, Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker chart the evolution of the seaside from a wasteland at the margins of civilization - when "exotic" meant remote and terrifying - to its present role as a staging ground for escape and recreation.

Embedded in the story are the histories of sexuality, health, fashion, and sport, as well as accounts of the development of beach architecture (and beachwear, naturally) and the rise of the great resorts, whose very names - Brighton, St. Tropez, Newport, Miami Beach - are synonymous with pleasure. The beach is also where Columbus, Cook, and Bougainville first set eyes on the "other," where the D-Day troops invaded France, and where the first postwar atomic bomb was exploded.

Discover how the beach has become the symbolic place where each wave of inhabitants can make real its own idea of paradise.