Christopher L. Pastore. Between Land and Sea

Building upon the traditions of historical geography, Atlantic world studies, and environmental history, Christopher L. Pastore presents a case study of how we can better understand the littoral. Although his work focuses tightly on just one small corner of North America, his in-depth analysis of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay and its marine environment (both oceanic and inland) and his theories and methodological approach push well beyond these limits and ask compelling questions about human interaction in the border regions between land and sea. Early in the book Pastore makes two compelling arguments. The first focuses on the specific geographic history of Rhode Island. “At once a barrier and bridge,” Pastore writes, “Narragansett Bay was a product of both physical geography and human demands on that geography, a space shaped by its marginal location as well as by the religious beliefs, political allegiances, and economic aspirations of those who inhabited it” (10). Pastore argues that the functionality of this marginal location diminished when communities forced an unnatural separation between land and sea in their attempts to bring progress to the region

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