Charleston: Race, Water and the Coming Storm

Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm is a book that explores the intersection of climate and race in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. It chronicles the city's tumultuous recent past, including protests and hurricanes, and highlights the escalating riskiness of its future due to rising sea levels and devastating storms. The book emphasizes the lack of planning in the city to ensure a thriving future for all residents, making it a symbol of the vulnerability of global coastlines.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 24 August 2023
Publisher: The Indigo Press

Charleston, a picturesque and vulnerable port city, was established by English settlers in 1669 as a bustling hub for the sugar and slave trades. However, as the waters continue to rise, Charleston finds itself at the forefront of a pressing intersection: climate and race.

Unbeknownst to the tourists who wander through the charming streets of the Charleston peninsula, the city is on the brink of a catastrophic future. Rapidly rising sea levels and increasingly devastating storms are mere years away from rendering Charleston uninhabitable.

Weaving science, narrative history, and the personal stories of Black Charlestonians, "Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm" chronicles the tumultuous recent past of the city, from protests to hurricanes. It sheds light on the escalating riskiness of its future, highlighting Charleston's vulnerability as a symbol of vast portions of global coastlines that are likely to be chronically inundated in the coming decades.

In Charleston, as in other global cities, there is a lack of comprehensive planning to ensure a thriving future for all residents. This lack of foresight is particularly concerning, as the city's history of racial inequality and segregation continues to shape its present and future.

"Charleston" by Harvard Law School professor and author Susan Crawford delves into the story of a city that has played a central role in America's painful racial history for centuries. The book is preceded by a foreword by Annette Gordon-Reed, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "On Juneteenth."

Weight: 430g
Dimension: 137 x 267 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781911648543