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Leviathan

The History of Whaling in America

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Leviathan

By: Eric Jay Dolin
Narrated by: James Boles
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About this listen

 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 20th 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.

©2007 Eric Jay Dolin (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc. Americas Animals Biological Sciences Economic History Economics Outdoors & Nature Science United States Latin America

Critic Reviews

"Engrossing....This account is at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Eric Jay Dolin's Leviathan is the best history of American whaling to come along in a generation." (Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex)
All stars
Most relevant  
Imagine a world that was so dependent upon whale oil that people sailed in ships made of wood for many thousands of miles into dangerous seas, arctic seas, tropical seas and more for years at a time to harvest the great creatures. This book dives deeply into how the whaling enterprise began with a trickle and then developed over hundreds of years, across continents and past the highs and lows of wars and political change.

Whilst truly sad for the whalers and the whales, this is a document of great scope. Truly fascinating and well worth your time to learn more about how we got to where we are on the backs of the whale.

Fascinating

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