Around America: A Tour of Our Magnificent Coastline - Softcover

Cronkite, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393323358 ISBN 13: 9780393323351

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

Synopsis

A journey around America's historic coastline, where we encounter places and people that continue to shape our country.

America has nearly five thousand miles of coastline. What would it be like to travel from the islands of Maine to the stepping-stones of the Florida Keys; from the cliffs of the Pacific Northwest to the beaches of southern California; and around the Gulf Coast, where our major rivers reach the sea? Here we travel with Walter Cronkite, our trusted guide. At Maine's eastern tip, we find a British warship captured during the Revolution by the citizens of Machias, wielding pitchforks because they had no muskets. We visit islands along Texas's coastline, exploring a sanctuary for migratory birds. And we visit Fort Ross, on California's Redwood Coast, a replica of the 1812 Russian settlement begun as a fur trading post, with dreams of expanding the Russian empire. In this compelling travelogue we can almost hear Cronkite talking, his smooth cadences spinning stories about the coastline he loves. Drawings and map.

About this title

Review

This slim, enjoyable book is similar to the best kind of evening news broadcast: short on depth, yet long on charm, and featuring enough compelling anecdotes and interesting facts to inspire further investigation. In Around America, legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite presents a historical tour of much of America's nearly 5,000 miles of coastline. From the helm of his sailboat Wyntje, he offers tales of shipwrecks, naval battles, and navigational near-misses, as well as such memorable quips as "If you are a sailor, it is not a good thing to have a rock named after you." He's obviously much more familiar with the northeastern coast than the other places he describes, but even his enthusiastic, if light, take on the western and gulf coasts makes for pleasant armchair navigating. He also paints a rich montage of the 1,245-mile Intracoastal Waterway stretching from Norfolk, Virginia, to Key West, Florida, in which he describes both the culture of the waterfront communities he passes and the deep historical significance of the region.

In this engaging book, Cronkite proves that the water need not be deep to be teaming with life, and he offers an amusing anecdote, colorful character, or historical tidbit on nearly every page. At its core, Around America is a labor of love by a mariner in his twilight still happily searching for hidden American harbors. --Shawn Carkonen

About the Author

Walter Cronkite, former CBS News anchor, has narrated TV specials and written an autobiography. He has sailed most of the coastline he writes about here. He lives in New York and Martha's Vineyard.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393323358
• ISBN 13: 9780393323351
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212