Awards

• Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (History) 2008
• Commended for Massachusetts Book Award (MassBook) (Nonfiction) 2008

Overview

This is the epic history of the ""iron men in wooden boats"" who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise of the burgeoning whaling industry to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.  

Full Product Details

9780393060577

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Reviews

Mr. Dolin handles this long, complex tale with great skill, both as a historian and as a writer (the bibliography and illustrations are splended too)...Leviathan is thoroughly engaging.--John Steele Gordon

"""...perfect summer reading, especially if you happen to be spending the summer by the sea, or on it."" -- Adam Kirsch - New York Sun ""Leviathan is an exhaustive, richly detailed history of industrial American whaling...Dolin succeeds admirably at what he sets out to do: tell the story of one of the strangest industries in American history."" -- Bruce Barcott - New York Times ""Eric Jay Dolin's lively and thorough history spans the rise, golden age, and decline of what was once one of New England's distinctive industries...Dolin chose to take on the subject in its broadest form, and if he leaves us wanting more, that is what good history does."" -- David Waldstreicher - The Boston Globe ""Starred Review. Engrossing account...at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative."" -- Publishers Weekly ""Mr. Dolin handles this long, complex tale with great skill, both as a historian and as a writer (the bibliography and illustrations are splended too)...Leviathan is thoroughly engaging."" -- John Steele Gordon - The Wall Street Journal"

""...perfect summer reading, especially if you happen to be spending the summer by the sea, or on it."" -- Adam Kirsch - New York Sun ""Leviathan is an exhaustive, richly detailed history of industrial American whaling...Dolin succeeds admirably at what he sets out to do: tell the story of one of the strangest industries in American history."" -- Bruce Barcott - New York Times ""Eric Jay Dolin's lively and thorough history spans the rise, golden age, and decline of what was once one of New England's distinctive industries...Dolin chose to take on the subject in its broadest form, and if he leaves us wanting more, that is what good history does."" -- David Waldstreicher - The Boston Globe ""Starred Review. Engrossing account...at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative."" -- Publishers Weekly ""Mr. Dolin handles this long, complex tale with great skill, both as a historian and as a writer (the bibliography and illustrations are splended too)...Leviathan is thoroughly engaging."" -- John Steele Gordon - The Wall Street Journal

National Marine Fisheries Service analyst Dolin compellingly examines whaling's importance to America's early growth and wealth. The author traces the industry's development, from enthusiastic whale hunting by eighth-century Basques to the introduction of an array of whale products throughout Europe by the 17th century. The first American settlers saw Indians cutting up dead pilot whales stranded on the beach and soon tried drift whaling themselves. Favorably located near migratory routes, Nantucket took the lead first in drift whaling and then in shore whaling, rowing out to harpoon leviathans swimming near the coast. The island's hardworking, business-minded Quaker settlers, relying on the local Indians as an abundant source of skilled labor, launched deep-sea hunting for the sperm whale and its three lucrative components: oil for clean lighting, spermaceti for medicinal elixirs and candles, ambergris as a fixative for perfumes. (Right whales provided another commercially successful product: baleen for corset stays.) Dolin takes the reader through the facets of sperm-whale hunting, detailing the creature's actual physical makeup and the nasty life aboard whaling vessels, then moving on to describe the dangerous chase for an elusive, troublesome prey, followed by the dismemberment and processing of its carcass. Various American wars dealt disastrously with the whaling industry, though it recovered after 1812 and, by the early 1850s, had entered the golden age Herman Melville depicted in Moby-Dick. In 1853, the top year of production, ships from New Bedford, New London and Sag Harbor killed an astounding 8,000 whales to produce 103,000 barrels of sperm oil and 5.7 million pounds of baleen. But the discovery of crude oil in Pennsylvania during the late 1850s produced a flood of cheap kerosene that soon supplanted whale oil as the principle source of lamp fuel. Dolin closes with the final voyage of New Bedford's last whaling ship in 1924.A densely researched and comprehensive portrait, enhanced by fascinating archival paintings and photos. (Kirkus Reviews)

Mr. Dolin handles this long, complex tale with great skill, both as a historian and as a writer (the bibliography and illustrations are splended too)...Leviathan is thoroughly engaging. --John Steele Gordon

Author Information

Eric Jay Dolin is the best-selling and award-winning author of numerous works in maritime history, including Leviathan, Rebels at Sea, and Black Flags, Blue Waters. He lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

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