Overview

This is the epic history of the iron men in wooden boats who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme, Herman Melville proclaimed, and this absorbing history demonstrates that few things can capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Eric Jay Dolin begins his vivid narrative with Captain John Smith's botched whaling expedition to the New World in 1614. He then chronicles the rise of a burgeoning industry--from its brutal struggles during the Revolutionary period to its golden age in the mid-1800s, when a fleet of more than 700 ships hunted the seas and American whale oil lit the world--to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. This sweeping social and economic history provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves, who mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, scrimshawed, and recorded their experiences in journals and memoirs. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.

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Reviews

"An exhaustive, richly detailed history of industrial American whaling.... A real taste of the vile life aboard a whaleship and a cleareyed analysis of the cutthroat tactics of the whale-oil trade.-- ""The New York Times"" ""An exhaustive, richly detailed history of industrial American whaling...A real taste of the vile life aboard a whaleship and a cleareyed analysis of the cutthroat tactics of the whale-oil trade."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Engrossing...This account is at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""James Boles reads this well-organized history with a steadiness and clarity that keeps you listening."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""This is a lively and thorough history, with the author well-suited to sort out the fish tales and the sometimes ugly truths of a violent, pressure-filled venture"" -- ""Boston Globe"""

Author Information

Eric Jay Dolin is the author of several books of history, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. It also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for US Maritime History. He is a graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his PhD in environmental policy. James Boles is an accomplished audiobook narrator whose work includes such titles as Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town by Nate Blakeslee and A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus. He is also an award-winning stage actor. He lives in Stratford, Connecticut.

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