Read where you are, take an adventure somewhere new in this Milwaukee-focused book discussion series.
The Death & Life of the Great Lakes is a wonderfully told story of history, science and reportage about the largest source of freshwater in the world, and the threat to America’s waterways.
The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior—hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.
Dan Egan likes to say that he may be the only journalist in America whose beat is the Great Lakes. A daily reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Egan reports on everything from invasive species to oil spills to algae blooms. Much of that work — reported for the paper over the course of a decade — made itself into “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes.”
Praise for The Death & Life of the Great Lakes
"Nimbly splices together history, science, reporting and personal experiences into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative.… Egan’s book is bursting with life (and yes, death)." - Robert Moor, New York Times Book Review
“Suspenseful, superbly informative, crucial.” - Louise Erdrich
“Fascinating and brilliant… Egan’s narrative often moves like a thriller.” - Vicky Albritton and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Easy to read, offering well-paced, intellectually stimulating arguments, bolstered by well-researched and captivating narratives.” - Lekelia Danielle Jenkins, Science
“Dan Egan has done more than any other journalist in America to chronicle the decline of this once-great ecosystem.” - Judges’ citation, Grantham Award of Special Merit for Environmental Beat Reporting
How to Get the Book
Support local at Boswell Books
Supplementary Material
Timely news: A Toxic Legacy: Milwaukee Prepares to Clean Up 150 Years of Water Pollution (great 8-minute video by John Gurda)
More to Come
This is the first book discussion in the Milwaukee Must Reads series sponsored by Boswell Books, Historic Milwaukee, Menomonee Valley Partners, and the Milwaukee Public Library. Join us in February as we dive into portions of John Gurda’s A City of Neighborhoods and in March as we explore The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell and her spectacular reputation right here in Milwaukee.
