Let's Go to the Beach: A History of Sun and Fun by the Sea

Did you know that women once wore corsets under their bathing suits? Or that “semi-drowning”-the strip and plunge practice-was thought to be good for one's health? Or that Pudgy Stockton, the body-building queen of Muscle Beach, California, opened the country's first gym for women?

From the bathhouses of the ancient Greeks to Venice Beach and Coney Island, Let's Go to the Beach takes a multifaceted and well researched look at beaches and their attendant customs. The text explores such histor...