{"product_id":"the-oyster-question-christine-keiner-9780820337180","title":"The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay Since 1880","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Oyster Question\u003c\/i\u003e, Christine Keiner applies perspectives of environmental, agricultural, political, and social history to examine the decline of Maryland's iconic Chesapeake Bay oyster industry. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOystermen have held on to traditional ways of life, and some continue to use preindustrial methods, tonging oysters by hand from small boats. Others use more intensive tools, and thus it is commonly believed that a lack of regulation enabled oystermen to exploit the bay to the point of ruin. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Keiner offers an opposing view in which state officials, scientists, and oystermen created a regulated commons that sustained tidewater communities for decades. Not until the 1980s did a confluence of natural and unnatural disasters weaken the bay's resilience enough to endanger the oyster resource. Keiner examines conflicts that pitted scientists in favor of privatization against watermen who used their power in the statehouse to stave off the forces of rural change. Her study breaks new ground regarding the evolution of environmental politics at the state rather than the federal level. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Oyster Question\u003c\/i\u003e concludes with the impassioned ongoing debate over introducing nonnative oysters to the Chesapeake Bay and how that proposal might affect the struggling watermen and their identity as the last hunter-gatherers of the industrialized world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Christine Keiner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0820337188\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820337180\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.14lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.79d","brand":"Christine Keiner","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926508863743,"sku":"9780820337180","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_0c4d66d6-bc14-41d2-8e8f-c17cb8a8fde0.jpg?v=1681083471","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-oyster-question-christine-keiner-9780820337180","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}