The Gulf: the making of an American sea

Prologue: History, nature, and a forgotten sea

Introduction: Birth

Part one: Estuaries, and the lie of the land and sea : aborigines and colonizing Europeans. Mounds ; El golfo de México ; Unnecessary death ; A most important river, and a "magnificent" bay

Part two: Sea and sky : American debuts in the nineteenth century. Manifest destiny ; A fishy sea ; The wild fish that tamed the coast ; Birds of a feather, shot together

Part three: Preludes to the future. From bayside to beachside ; Oil and the Texas toe dip ; Oil and the Louisiana plunge ; Islands, shifting sands of time ; Wind and water

Part four: Saturation and loss : post-1945. The growth coast ; Florida worry, Texas slurry ; Rivers of stuff ; Runoff, and runaway ; Sand in the hourglass ; Losing the edge

Epilogue: A success story amid so much else.