087 - Elsa Devienne - Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles

A conversation with historian Elsa Devienne about their book, Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (Oxford University Press, 2024)

 

Elsa Devienne is Assistant Professor of History at Northumbria University. 

 

Sand Rush was originally published in French by Éditions de la Sorbonne in 2020 as La ruée vers le sable: Une histoire environnementale des plages de Los Angeles au XXe siècle. 

Along with numerous articles, Devienne is also co-editor or co-author of:

• Le chemin, la rive et l’usine : Faire de l’histoire environnementale avec Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud (Paris: Presses des Mines, 2023).
• D’Après nature: Frederick Law Olmsted et le park movement américain (Pari : Éditions Fahrenheit, 2014).

Below are links to an article and two podcast episodes that Devienne mentions towards the end of this episode:

•  “Making Plastics Count: Citizen Science Beach Cleanups and the Ocean Plastic Pollution Crisis (1980s-2020s),” Environmental History, 30, no 4(October 2025): 646-673. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/737351
• "Early Heroines of Plastic Pollution, Part I: Meet the Women who Started the Beach Cleanups (Judie)," Plastisphere Podcast, 2025. https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/coastal-cleanup-judie?in=plastisphere-podcast/sets/changemakers
• "Early Heroines of Plastic Pollution, Part I: Meet the Women who Started the Beach Cleanups (Linda)," Plastisphere Podcast, 2025. https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/coastal-cleanup-linda?in=plastisphere-podcast/sets/changemakers 

 

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