In Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island, Earl Swift takes us to a community facing a 21st century crisis with 19th century beliefs and values. He interviewed islanders, accompanied watermen as they worked, and sat in on community ceremonies and informal conversations. Research into the island’s history and the Bay’s ecology are woven into his narrative.

The people of Tangier Island may soon be America’s first climate change refugees, but they won’t be the last. With this portrait of people, “so rooted to their tiny lump of mud in the Chesapeake that they seem products of another age,” Swift deprives us of facile answers based on numbers or efficiency. What will we chose to save?

The author has said he will join us and answer questions, if participants have read the book! The author’s website is https://www.earlswift.com/

To obtain a link to the virtual meeting, RSVP to SHRLeague [at] gmail.com with "Chesapeake" as the subject. The link will be sent the week of the meeting.