Bruce Barcott
It would take courage to approach whaling as a literary subject—everything ever written about it lives in the shadow of Moby-Dick—and Leviathan doesn't really aspire to those heights. Accurate details and a full historical scope, not drama, are the book's driving virtues. At times that approach results in wonderful insights into whaling: a real taste of the vile life aboard a whaleship and a cleareyed analysis of the cutthroat tactics of the whale-oil trade. At other times, the details become overwhelming. In the end, though, Dolin succeeds admirably at what he sets out to do: tell the story of one of the strangest industries in American history.
—The New York Times Book Review
William Grimes
…anyone whose knowledge of whaling begins and ends with Moby-Dick will get a solid education from Mr. Dolin, who fills in the historical record and sets the stage for the glory years when men like Melville set out from Nantucket, New Bedford, Sag Harbor and dozens of other ports on voyages lasting as long as four years.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
In this engrossing account, Dolin (Political Waters) chronicles the epic history of the American whaling industry, which peaked in the mid-18th century as "American whale oil lit the world." Temporarily dealt a blow by the Revolutionary War, whaling grew tremendously in the first half of the 19th century, and then diminished after the 1870s, in part because of the rise of petroleum. Many of America's pivotal moments were bound up with whaling: the ships raided during the Boston Tea Party, for example, carried whale oil from Nantucket to London before loading up with tea. Dolin also shows the ways whaling intersected with colonial conquest of Native Americans-had Indians not sold white settlers crucial coastal land, for example, Nantucket's whaling industry wouldn't have gotten off the ground. He sketches the complex relationship between whaling and slavery: service on a whaler served as a means of escape for some slaves, and whalers were occasionally converted into slave ships. This account is at once grand and quirky, entertaining and informative. 32 pages of illus. (July)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Library Journal
In the introduction to his sprawling account of America's whaling legacy, Dolin explicitly warns that his text is not concerned with the modern ethical implications of the whaling industry. Nor is it a revisionist exploration of the industry's heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, with contemporary debate about the fate of whaling increasingly at the forefront, the historical events related here are all the more poignant. The Basques were most likely the first Europeans to centralize their economy around whaling; later, the industry helped enable the Dutch, Germans, and English to establish sea supremacy. Dolin devotes significant space to the importance of whaling in the relationship-and the dissolution thereof-between England and its American Colonies. He thoroughly discusses the pervasive influence of the whaling industry on American society, from the everyday drama of the seamen in search of commodity to the myriad items made of whale by-products available in the marketplace, including Spermaceti candles and ambergris. As its name suggests, Leviathan is a monumental treatise on a formative American institution, and Dolin admirably creates a cohesive story. Narrator James Boles is engaging, though at times his vocal inflections overdramatize what is historical nonfiction. Recommended for most libraries, especially those with strong historical or natural science collections.-Christopher Rager, Pasadena, CA
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
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 ofbaleen. 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. Agent: Russell Galen/Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency
The Wall Street Journal - John Steele Gordon
"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."
New York Sun - Adam Kirsch
"...perfect summer reading, especially if you happen to be spending the summer by the sea, or on it."
New York Times - Bruce Barcott
"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."
From the Publisher
"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
The Wall Street Journal
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 Boston Globe
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
New York Times
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 Sun
...perfect summer reading, especially if you happen to be spending the summer by the sea, or on it.— Adam Kirsch
FEB/MAR 08 - AudioFile
Killing whales is anathema now, but the whaling industry played a big part in the economic development of the U.S. It affected, and was affected by, Indian-settler relations, fugitive slaves, the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. James Boles reads this well-organized history with a steadiness and clarity that keeps you listening. Its long narrative sections are broken by quotes, journal entries, and rhymes, all enlivened as much as possible. Life on a whaler was hard and usually rewarding only for the officers and owners. Though Boles's reading is pretty evenhanded emotionally, you sense a sympathy for the sailors, if not for the whales. Discovery of oil in Pennsylvania and the corsetless (whalebone) fashion of the early twentieth century rendered the U.S. whaling business obsolete. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
