The world of the independent fisherman is a world of constant peril, of arcane folkways and expert knowledge, of calculated risk and self-reliance -- and of freedom won daily through backbreaking, solitary work. It's a way of life deep in the American grain. Richard Adams Carey spent a year with four New England fisherman, hauling traps, seeding clam beds, learning their work and why they do it. He tells of their luck, good and bad, on the water; of the winds and tides that toy with their boats and their lives; of the currents of history and the squalls of fisheries law and politics that continually threaten to swamp their livelihood. Reminiscent of the work of both John McPhee and Bill McKibben, Against the Tide is narrative journalism at its best, a masterly profile of four working men that on every page opens into something more: maritime history, marine ecology, and the poetic celebration of a special American place.