Paul SchneiderThe Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket

Good read. History was interesting.

First couple of chapters were hard to follow for me, got better the further I read. Good job.

If you love the Cape and islands, particularly Martha's Vineyard as I do, you should read The Enduring Shore at once. Paul Schneider's research is meticulous and his writing is crisp and economical. Any literate person who lives or vacations on the Vineyard, Nantucket or Cape Cod, will enjoy it and feel like an ignoramus for not having read it sooner.

I'm sure a classic, but very detailed and I have yet to read.

Good read

ErieMERGER OF TWO TIMES ON THE CAPE AND COMPARISONS

This is the perfect book to take with you on your Cape Cod vacation. It offers lots of interesting tales and stories about life on Cape Cod and the Islands from pre-Colonial times through the present, and also is one of the few books that actually treats the Native Americans in enough depth to provide the reader with an appreciation for how essential the natives' contributions were to the survival of the early European settlers. It also makes it quite clear that the natives no doubt regretted their helpfulness in short order, having been kidnapped, stolen from and otherwised abused by the newcomers very soon after they landed.I always enjoy reading books about the places I visit while I'm there, so The Enduring Shore was perfect for my vacation to the outer Cape earlier this month. Schneider's discussion of the geology of the Cape is fascinating, and I will look at its cliffs and sandy beaches in a more knowing, deeper way henceforth.I like to have two or more books going at once, usually one nonfiction and one fiction. A good complementary novel to read in conjunction with The Enduring Shore is William Martin's Cape Cod, which offers an abundance of useful and interesting facts about the Cape while delivering them in the context of a family saga that is perfect for beach reading.I reecommend The Enduring Shore for anyone who is interested in how the Cape got that way and why it matters to so many of us today.

The romantic relationship between people and the land under their feet dates back, as the name suggests, to the Romantics of the 19th century. It was a relationship born of the truth that absence makes the heart grow fonder -- as cities grew, man longed for a natural world that was no longer readily at hand. And Cape Cod, that barren, sandy strip the Pilgrims had fled as soon as practicable, became a summer destination of choice for well-to-do New Englanders.Paul Schneider's The Enduring Shore is the latest tribute to the Cape from one of its inhabitants-by-choice. And, in keeping with the long tradition of such works, it proclaims two truths: things used to be better, but the charms of the Cape endure all the same.It is an eminently enjoyable fiction, this pretense that the Cape has always and will ever endure. And Schneider is a past master of the romantic form, sweeping the reader along with a well-crafted mix of local color, geographic history, and maybe-true legends. It is, in sum, wonderful summer reading, particularly for those who have themselves long felt some measure of love for the Cape.For those who find they have enjoyed Schneider's book, I would recommend also Diana Muir's Reflections in Bullough's Pond, which does for New England as a whole what Schneider has done for the Cape in particular.Romantic times and sunny days, after all, call for remembrance of things past, with a smile.