"At least thirteen million Americans will have to move away from American coasts in the coming decades, as rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms put lives at risk and cause billions of dollars in damages. In Charleston, South Carolina, denial, boosterism, widespread development, and public complacency about racial issues compound; the city, like our country, has no plan to protect its most vulnerable. In these pages, Susan Crawford tells the story of a city that has played a central role in America's painful racial history for centuries and now, as the waters rise, stands at the intersection of climate and race. Unbeknownst to the seven million mostly white tourists who visit the charming streets of the lower peninsula each year, the Holy City is in a deeply precarious position. Charleston chronicles the tumultuous recent past in the life of the city--from protests to hurricanes--while revealing the escalating risk in its future. Charleston, a bellwether for other coastal cities and towns around the globe, has done little to ensure a thriving future for all its residents despite the looming threat of environmental catastrophe."--