Illuminating America's political and economic relationship with the environment, from the age of the conquistadors to the present, Jack E. Davis demonstrates how the Gulf's fruitful ecosystems and exceptional beauty empowered a growing nation.  Filled with vivid, untold stories from the sportfish that launched Gulfside vacationing to Hollywood's role in the country's first offshore oil wells, this "elegant epic [shows] how America's relationship with the Gulf of Mexico defines our character and our future" (Cynthia Barnett). The first and only study of its kind, The Gulf offers "a unique and illuminating history of the American Southern coast and sea as it should be written" (Edward O. Wilson).