| Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America Contributor(s): Dolin, Eric Jay (Author) |
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ISBN: 0393331571 ISBN-13: 9780393331578 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $17.06 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2008 Annotation: This absorbing history demonstrates that few things capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Dolin provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves. 32 pages of illustrations. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - General - Business & Economics | Economic History - Business & Economics | Industries - General |
| Dewey: 639.280 |
| Physical Information: 1.21" H x 5.66" W x 8.18" (0.90 lbs) 512 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Dolin, Eric Jay: - Eric Jay Dolin is the best-selling author of Leviathan and Brilliant Beacons. He and his family live in Marblehead, Massachusetts, from which the pirate John Quelch departed in 1703, and returned to in 1704, only to be hanged in Boston. |