This is the epic history of the "iron men in wooden boats" who built an industrial empire based in places like
Nantucket Island 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.
Background Information
The island of Nantucket off the south coast of Massachusetts rose to become the principal whaling port in the world. Whale oil was a staple of domestic life before petroleum became developed, and whaling ships pursued the huge marine mammals around the world.