History

Wreck Ashore: The United States Life-Saving Service on the Great Lakes
by Frederick Stonehouse
From stormy shipwrecks to catastrophic disasters, the lifesavers were always there, risking their lives to save others. From the mid-1780s until it transformed into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, the U.S. Life-Saving Service was responsible for safety on the seas.

United States Life-Saving Service in Michigan
by William Peterson
In 1854, the U.S. government provided funds for lighthouses, boats, and life-saving equipment along the Atlantic seaboard to alleviate shipping disasters. These early efforts greatly reduced the number of lives and property lost to shipwrecks. In the heart of the Midwest, however, the Great Lakes alone claimed 4,500 vessels, 1,300 people, and more than $27 million in monetary damages between 1855 and 1876. These staggering losses prompted Congress to pass legislation putting the United States Life-Saving Service into operation in Michigan and other Great Lakes States. Pictured here in almost 200 images and detailed captions are Michigan's 38  stations and their crews along the Great Lakes, including Ottawa Point, Grand Haven, Holland, and South Manitou Island.

The U.S. Life Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues, and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard
by Ralph C. Shanks, Wick York, and Lisa Woo Shanks (Editor)
This very complete record of the people, technology, architecture and exploits of the U. S. Life-Saving Service is a large-format book illustrated with 446 photographs and maps. When coasting vessels numbered in the tens of thousands, , the stations and their beach patrols were a necessity, surfmen managed dramatic rescues, many of which are recounted here.

That Others Might Live: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, 1878-1915
by Dennis L. Noble
Dennis L. Noble fills in a longstanding gap in the history of the US Coast Guard by detailing the trials and accomplishments of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The book is a brief but comprehensive chronicle of how a relatively few people made a difference in protecting shipwrecked mariners. Noble provides details of the daily lives of those who served as well as their equipment. The narrative is crisp and quick-paced, but doesn't skimp on the details.

Lifeboat Sailors: The U.S. Coast Guard's Small Boat Stations
by Dennis L. Noble
Lifeboat Sailors is an excellent tribute to the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard's small boat stations and their selfless efforts to save the lives of those in peril in dangerous waters. It also offers a perceptive insight into the Coast Guards management of its small boat stations and raises concern for the future.

Fire on the Beach : Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers
by David Wright and David Zoby
Fire on the Beach is a wonderful book on a forgotten piece of history: The story of an all-black unit of the U.S. Life-Saving Service on North Carolina's "beautiful and unforgiving" Outer Banks. Stationed on Pea Island, near the hazardous "Graveyard of the Atlantic," the men of the segregated Station 17 showed that African Americans were just as capable as their white peers when it came to saving the lives of sailors and passengers whose ships foundered on deadly shoals. Their leader was Richard Etheridge, an inspiring figure born into slavery. He fought during the Civil War and later entered the Life-Saving Service. Much of the book is a reconstruction of his life, and Civil War buffs will appreciate the extensive treatment given to his military service.

Fieldwork

The Theory and Practice of Archaeology : A Workbook (3rd Edition)
by Thomas C. Patterson
Intended to help the reader learn how to think like an archaeologist. This book includes activities that challenge readers to interpret and explain field findings and help them to see the link between theory and practice. Topics include stratigraphy, seriation, modes of production, divisions of labor, social reproduction, and class struggle and resistance. For those interested in discovering the history of contemporary social structures.
 

For Young Readers

Sink or Swim: African-American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks
by Carole Boston Weatherford
When ships were in trouble off the treacherous coast of North Carolinas Outer Banks, the courageous black lifesavers at Pea Island Station were first on the scene and in the water. Through raging storms, pitch-black nights, and hurricanes, these surfmen performed amazing, death-defying rescues. For over seven decades, the intrepid crews battled fierce waves and racial prejudice. Ultimately, they received the recognition they richly deserved in 1996, more than a century after they broke the color barrier. Sink or Swim: African-American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks is the story of their heroism, their struggle, and their triumph.