The British and Their Coasts

Lecture | December 5 | 4-6 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall

Speaker/Performer: Professor John Gillis, Rutgers University

Sponsors: Center of British Studies, Institute of European Studies

From prehistory to today, Britain has been a coastal society, shaped as much by water as by land. But both its coasts and coastal peoples have changed enormously over time. I explore this transformation and its consequences for British society and its relationship with the wider world.

John Gillis is Professor of History Emeritus at Rutgers University who now residing in Berkeley. Known for his work in British social history of family, marriage, and age relations, he has of late turned his attention to global environmental history. He is author of Islands of the Mind (2004) and, most recently, The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History, which has just appeared with Chicago University Press.

Event Contact: ctrbs@berkeley.edu