Philip L. Fradkin, one of California's most acclaimed environmental historians, felt drawn to the coast as soon as he arrived in California in 1960. His first book, "California: The Golden Coast", captured the wonder of the shoreline's natural beauty along with the controversies it engendered. In "The Left Coast", the author and his photographer son Alex Fradkin revisit some of the same places they explored together in the early 1970s. From their written and visual approaches, this father-son team brings a unique generational perspective to the subject. Mixing history, geography, interviews, personal experiences, and photographs, they find a wealth of stories and memorable sights in the multiplicity of landscapes, defined by them as the Wild, Agricultural, Residential, Tourist, Recreational, Industrial, Military, and Political coasts. Alex Fradkin's expressive photographs add a layer of meaning, enriching the subject with their distinctive eloquence while bringing a visual dimension to his father's words. In this way, the book becomes the story of a close relationship within a probing study of a varied and contested coastline.
- ISBN10 0520255097
- ISBN13 9780520255098
- Publish Date 21 June 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 March 2017
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of California Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 126
- Language English