Eric Jay Dolin's history of whaling in America is a great read. He goes to great pains to judge whaling on its own terms, chronicling the rise and decline of whaling from multiple points of view: looking at the impact of improving whale-hunting technologies; industries and towns that grew up to support the whaling industry; products of whaling and how extensively they influenced the regional (mostly New England) and national economy; how whaling was impacted, and what roles it played, in each major American War (up through World War I); its environmental impact and how the industry evolved over time to search farther afield for whales as populations declined closer to home; and how other industries, such as the rise of the Petroleum industry and declining demand for whalebone, eventually caused whaling's demise in America. He also has a very interesting segment on how our cultural memory came to embrace American Whaling as a nostalgic saga within American History. I found his discussions of the human element in whaling, such as the evolving nature of the economic and social relationships between whale ship owners, captains, and crewman to also be well done.

You really come to understand how whaling changed over time: starting as an ad-hoc and opportunistic effort by Indians and colonists, to the first whaling ships with crews (consisting mostly of colonists and Indians), to the gradual shift over the centuries to a highly exploitive relationship between ship owners/captains and crews (that had many traits in common with the old southern sharecropping economy and the modern exploitation of "illegal immigrant" labor).

Dolin's love for whales and training in environmental science are visible on every page. He succeeds in approaching the subject with non-judgmental eyes, but his skills help you appreciate how whalers saw the animals, and help you develop a respect-for and understanding of the animals themselves. He also does a great job of describing the various species of whales that were hunted by the whalers: why they were valued, and how the aspects of each species impacted the ways in which they were hunted.

Dolin focuses mostly on Nantucket and New Bedford, the two largest whaling communities throughout the rise and fall of the American whaling industry; though he examines the experiences of Mystic and other towns as well. Each whaling community had particular aspects that contributed to their rise and eventual decline such as location, accessibility to markets, exposure to foreign intrusion and domination during wartime, and specialization in terms of the species of whale they hunted. All of these aspects contributed to various communities rising and then falling in prominence and prosperity, allowing others to rise to the forefront as the industry evolved.

I have long been a student of American history, and found this book to be both accurate in terms of historical fact as well as sensitive to the evolving and constantly changing dynamics of what I'll term the "American Experience," culture, political landscape and economy.

The teaser quote on the cover from Nathaniel Philbrick: "The Best History of American Whaling in a Generation." was well chosen, as Philbrick's book (Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War - which I've also reviewed) is very similar in terms of style and intended audience, as well as also being a great read.

If you are a student of American History, and want to read a well- researched, well-written and thought provoking survey of the history of American Whaling, this is definitely the book for you. Five Stars!

It is a fantastic and complete book about American whaling. After reading this you know everything about the subject.
Bram Oosterwijk
The Netherlands

I picked up "Leviathan" on a whim during a visit to the North Carolina shore. I'm glad I did -- I could hardly believe how good it turned out to be. The detail, the sweep of the narrative and Dolin's wonderful writing all make this a very special book. I felt I understood my nation's history far better after reading it.

What a superbly weaved tale in a very readable book which held my interests throughout. A great summer read on the beach or one whilst enjoying the quiet of an evening in the hamptons, the vinyard or nantucket itself all prominently featured. The whaling industry was truely the forbear of today's oil industry . . . good, bad or indifferent to the subject matter, you will likely learn a great deal and this one is hard to put down.

It's cliched to say something like "The best history books bring history alive." The really, really best ones simply transport you back in time.

"Leviathan" does that, and with vivid first-hand accounts. It's one thing to think of whaling as some glorious adventure or conquest; it's quite the other to read a disgruntled sailor's cursing of his boss, who basically just decided to steal another year of his sailors' lives: "He ought to have the tooth ache for amusement and a bawling child to rock him to sleepe." Don't hold back -- tell us how you really feel!

Mixed in with the tales are larger-picture stuff, including the double-dealing of whalers during wartime as they struggled to keep the industry, err, afloat. Whaling was incredibly important to the New England communities that turned it into an industrial production; Dolin casts economic issues into the proper context even as he finds voices from the past to explain it.

I'd been recommending another book, "The Devil in the White City," for years -- until I read "Leviathan: A History of Whaling in America." This is the book I recommend to all now, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.