The Real Jaws: The Attacks That Inspired the Movies

Hashtag History podcaster Perez underwhelms in this revisiting of the series of deadly shark attacks in 1916 that allegedly inspired the movie Jaws. In a two-week period in July 1916, four people were killed in shark attacks near the Jersey shore, creating an atmosphere of fear so pervasive, Perez notes, that President Woodrow Wilson convened a cabinet meeting to discuss potential responses. Perez goes into the attacks in gory detail (“a left leg that had been entirely mangled and stripped of its flesh”) and places them in context, summarizing the history of known shark attacks before and after 1916. Along the way, she pushes back on the idea that sharks are “evil, man-eating monsters,” a stereotype spurred in part by Steven Spielberg’s movie, explaining that people are more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a shark. Perez also explores possible triggers for the 1916 attacks, like poor waste disposal practices attracting sharks close to the shore, and whether more than one shark was responsible for all four deaths. Unfortunately, the account provides little new information, and Perez herself refers to two previous books on the 1916 attacks—Twelve Days of Terror and Close to Shore—as providing the “most in-depth investigative analysis in existence.” This misses the mark. (Sept.)