Tin Can Coast
A History of Industry, Greed, and Fishing in the Golden State
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Tin Can Coast
Narrated by:
Ryan Wilson
Pre-order Now for £15.37
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Narrated by:
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Ryan Wilson
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By:
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Joseph Ogilvy
"You'll never look at a can of tuna the same way again." —MALCOM HARRIS, nationally bestselling author of Palo Alto
The hidden story of the California Coast, told through generations of immigrants, surges of industry, and three marine species caught in the dragnet of human history.
Look west from San Francisco or Monterey, past the surfers and cargo ships. This is the California Current, 1,900 miles of the most productive waters on earth. It was here that eighteenth-century locals encountered frisbee-sized abalone mollusks, sardine schools the size of buses, and Yellowfin tuna, each the size of a man. But it was not to last.
Over the next three centuries, the abalone, sardine, and tuna were swept into the violent undertow of history. Their species became resources. Fishing and hunting drove the Spanish-Russian territory battle of the eighteenth century, California’s virulently racist first “conservation” laws in the 19th, and an ad campaign that kept America fed on just-like-chicken canned goods in the 20th. Along the way, they became drivers of geopolitical competition, catalysts for the dramatic rise and fall of Cannery Row aristocracy, and even surly muses for John Steinbeck and Fritz Lang.
Collapsing the distinctions between human and natural history, Tin Can Coast brings the cautionary tale of the California shore to life.©2026 Joseph Ogilvy (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Critic reviews
Ogilvy’s book is a study of the history and risks of overfishing, but it’s also powerful nature writing, rich with his own first-hand observations, along with a lively story about the consequences of rapacious capitalism, international disputes and technological innovation.
Ogilvy debuts with an ambitious and sweeping history of hunting and fishing along the California coast, tracing centuries of upheaval by humans . . . A lucid, unsettling diagnosis of the economic, political, and ecological forces shaping the Pacific Coast.
This far-reaching work of history demonstrates how seemingly disparate forces can work together to make or break a town, an industry, a community, or a once-thriving species. Tin Can Coast will appeal to a wide variety of readers interested in economic forces, the environment, and twentieth-century American history.
A deep dive into California's murky maritime memories, Tin Can Coast surfaces a full net of iridescent stories. You'll never look at a can of tuna the same way again.
In Tin Can Coast, Ogilvy does a masterful job of weaving together the enmeshed fates of the California Current’s fisheries, the immigrant communities that first exploited them, and the way greed eventually killed what could have been the Golden Coast’s golden goose. A fascinating story at every turn, exceptionally well told.
A keen-eyed and comprehensive look at the fisheries of the West Coast and the cultures that fished them, Tin Can Coast will leave you awed by the majesty of these extraordinary ecosystems, heartbroken at their exploitation and collapse, and fiercely appreciative of this uniquely American story, in all its contradictions.
The story of California is one of sun, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and—perhaps surprisingly—fish. In Tin Can Coast, Joseph Ogilvy explores the Golden State's long relationship with the ocean through well-crafted tales of successive waves of immigrants and the marine creatures they hunted and profited from. A rigorous, engaging book that'll peel the scales from your eyes and foster deeper appreciation for the sea.
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