The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Average customer rating:

No where near technical enough

Global supply chains explained

Interesting Look at the Building Blocks of Globalization

Superb for non-specialists

A fascinating read about "boring" containers

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Marc Levinson
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.

Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. It recounts how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur, Malcom McLean, turned containerization from an impractical idea into a massive industry that slashed the cost of transporting goods around the world.

But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean's success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container's potential.

Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world's workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.

Customer Reviews:

No where near technical enough.......2007-10-03

Like many jounalists' stories this is set around a particular factor. In this case an entrepeneur who no doubt had a big role to play.

But there were lots of other factors which are not given much play and others bearly alluded to. Also, not even one drawing of a container or its fittings!

So OK as an intro but by no means a comprehensive history.

Global supply chains explained.......2007-08-13

It's hard to dispute that containerization has dramatically altered the rules of the game: global supply chains, logistics, and outsourcing are all direct consequences of the massive trade flows enabled by modern containerships. Marc Levinson's account of this industry is an interesting mix of politics and history. A good section of the book is dedicated to labor disputes, and the general resistance of the dock workers and US unions to mechanization. In retrospect, they were worried for the right reasons, modern ports require very little human involvement and the days of breakbulk shipping are long gone. In all, 'The Box' offers a good mix of the politics, strategy, and historical research.

Interesting Look at the Building Blocks of Globalization.......2007-08-08

Although THE BOX may be somewhat too American centered, economist and business journalist Marc Levinson has written an eminently readable history of the advent of the modern logistics industry that goes a long way toward bringing the attention of a nonspecialist audience to the topic. Despite his belief that his subject has "all the romance of a tin can" (p. 1), his account is anything but dull because he builds much of his narrative around a cast of colorful entrepreneurs, engineers, and union leaders. The most significant character is Malcom P. McLean, who launched modern containerization in April 1956 by having fifty-eight truck trailers loaded onboard a refitted oil tanker that sailed from Newark, New Jersey, to Houston. The main background to Levinson's account, however, consists of the various roadblocks to containerization put in place and enforced by government regulators in agencies such as the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the United States Maritime Administration, and the Federal Maritime Board. In the author's opinion, the bureaucrats, far from having the consumer's best interest in mind, usually undertook to protect established commercial interests by limiting competition in the transportation industry....

Levinson's treatment of the revolutionary days of container shipping, which lasted until the early 1980s, is very thorough, but his account of the more recent past is much less so. Indeed, people familiar with the industry may get the impression that a final (non-American) chapter is missing from the book. For example, although Levinson describes the rise of container ports in western Europe and East Asia, he devotes only two paragraphs to the fact that European and Asian firms that were late entrants in the game now dominate the industry. No U.S. firm is currently listed in the world's top eighteen container ship companies. Five of these top firms (including the three largest) are headquartered in Europe, three in China (two in mainland China and one in Hong Kong), three in Japan, two in Taiwan, two in South Korea, and the remaining three in Singapore, Chile, and Israel. (See Ted Smith-Peterson, "Railroading's New Economy: The Spigot," TRAINS 66, no. 9 [2006]: 34-41.) In Levinson's opinion, these late entrants achieved success because they "arrived with financial and managerial skills foreign to many of the carriers they replaced, skills appropriate to an industry in which raising capital and managing information systems were far more important than maritime knowledge" and because they were not burdened with "the legacy of government subsidies and directives that had crippled many of their predecessors by forcing them to buy ships built in their home countries or to sail routes determined by regulators" (p. 275). No doubt many readers would like to know more about these developments and about which skills Levinson means.

Levinson also barely alludes to more recent technological advances and to the amazing fact that the rest of the world now handles only one-third as many containers as the Chinese do (for both domestic and international trade). Furthermore, in the words of one industry analyst, China has now become the "U.S. railroads' growth engine" and has been the cause of an American "rail renaissance" (Tom Murray, "Railroading's New Economy: The China Factor," TRAINS 66, no. 8 [2006], p. 28).

Despite such shortcomings, however, THE BOX is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in understanding the emergence of our contemporary "globalized" world economy.

Superb for non-specialists.......2007-05-08

I read this book a few months ago for my nonfiction "foreign policy" book club and we loved it. I continue to rave about it and recommend it to others in diverse fields from national security to development to leadership studies. As generalists unfamiliar with shipping, this book was incredibly readable and engaging. Chapters treated a diverse range of topics, which we found well covered and incisive, such as the discussion of the role of labor unions, business entrepreneurship, and interplay between containerization and globalization. Kudos to Mr. Levinson for a superb effort.

A fascinating read about "boring" containers.......2007-04-25

Ever looked at a modern city's ports and wondered about those gigantic cranes or the logistics chain that they were a part of? Or wondered how we went from a world of stevedores/longshoremen and manual unloading to the gigantic container ships and nearly automated loading and unloading? Or better yet, how goods get so cheaply from the world's manufacturing facilities in China to the US, Europe and other places?

These are the questions the book addresses. It does so by focusing on the humble containers at the root of all this process and retelling their history over the last 50 years or so. If we didn't have a global standard for shipping container sizes, none of the infrastructure built around them like container ships, cranes, ports, rail cars, truck trailers and others would be possible.

The book shapes the story of the shipping container around one man Malcolm McLean who is widely regarded as the person who first used containers and built a shipping business around them. The book does a good job of detailing the history of the container including the initial struggles, the opposition of the longshoremen's labor unions and the rise and fall of ports as they bet (or did not bet) on the economies of scale that were brought about by the container. One does get a sense by reading the book of how much of our global economy we owe to the changes brought about by containers.

So why only 4stars? For one, I think the subject matter is interesting only to a narrow cross section of the population. Second, the book does drag quite a bit in places. The author does a great job of making the matter accessible, but he could have gone further. A certain pedantic nature does creep into the book and I felt some of the material could have been edited out of the book to trade off readability at the cost of scholarly completeness.

Average customer rating:

Very good content marred by poor editing
The Bible of Shipping
Best book ever on Maritime Economics
mariitme economics

Maritime Economics Second Edition
M. Stopford
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Extensively revised, Maritime Economics provides a valuable introduction to the global shipping industry, outlining the economic theory behind this large and complex subject as well as many of the operational practicalities involved.

Customer Reviews:

Very good content marred by poor editing.......2006-01-05

A small number of reviewers were impressed by this work and that accolade is understandable and, for the most part, well warranted. I found Mr. Stopford's book was a comprehensive and detailed discussion of the arcane field of maritime economics and finance. I believe that anyone interested in this field, particularly maritime attorneys, ship financing brokers, maritime finance department representatives, ocean carrier finance departments, and other players will find it very useful. However, I regret that I cannot give this work five stars. The volume I purchased contains far too many spelling and grammatical mistakes, no doubt due to poor editing by Routledge. These spelling and other errors are not just small mistakes that can be overlooked. There are far too many distracting errors that greatly undermine the usefulness of the book. At times, I found it very difficult to even follow the book's lessons because spelling and grammatical errors made it hard, if not impossible, to determine what lesson Mr. Stopford was trying to impart to the reader. It's a shame such a good book's lessons were marred and undermined by such shoddy editing.

The Bible of Shipping.......2005-06-23

It is the Bible of Shipping, a must for anyone interested on the Maritime World

Best book ever on Maritime Economics.......2004-03-19

Maritime Economics by Martin Stopford is not only the most comprehensive and understandable introduction to the world of shipping but today also a "must have read" for newcomers to both the shipping and vessel finance industries. Well written, close to real life practice. Just read it and get convinced

mariitme economics.......2000-10-13

It is an excellent guide book to students whose willing to study maritime business. It provides not only a good theorical understanding but real aspect getting from author's plenty experiences. If you want to learn about maritime transport economy, it is neassary to read it as soon as possible.

Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation

Average customer rating:

More political history than canal building
Great read--but focuses on politics and economics
The biggest economic development before the civil war
The Erie Canal and the Making...but where is the map?
A Fine History of the Erie Canal

Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation
Peter L. Bernstein
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Amazon.com

Begun in 1817 and completed in 1825, the Erie Canal stretches 363 miles across upstate New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson River. A stunning achievement, the canal was hacked through a densely forested pass in the Appalachian Mountains using only axes, shovels, low-grade explosive power, beasts of burden, and some ingenious devices. The engineers and workers created locks, bypassed rapids and waterfalls, and adjusted to countless changes in elevation. When the canal was completed it became one of the wonders of the world. But the canal was much more than a spectacular construction project; it also served to bind a young United States to itself and the rest of the world in one bold stroke. In this thoroughly absorbing book, Peter Bernstein describes in vivid detail how the Erie Canal helped to shape the United States into a great nation by connecting the eastern seaboard and western expanses of America, as well as propel the Industrial Revolution and stimulate global trade, economics, and immigration. It was so important to the development of the U.S., argues Bernstein, that without the canal the detached western territories "would in all likelihood have broken away" and created another, if not several, separate countries. Manifest Destiny would have been denied.

In telling this gripping tale, the author offers a brief history of canals through the ages, explains the foresight exhibited by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson regarding the need for a waterway to the west, and outlines the political wars, financing challenges, and seemingly endless delays and false starts to the project. He also reveals much about the political landscape of early America through his profiles of the personalities and visionaries who devoted their lives to the project, along with the engineers and surveyors, most of whom had little experience designing or constructing a canal of any kind, much less such a massive undertaking. Wedding of the Waters succeeds brilliantly in bringing this rich story to life. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

"One corner of the great American panorama enlarged to highlight starry-eyed visionaries, political machinations, indefatigable ingenuity, and cockeyed optimism."—Kirkus Reviews

A sweeping work of history by Peter L. Bernstein, Wedding of the Waters recounts the revolutionary conception, construction, and completion of the Erie Canal, one of the greatest engineering projects ever undertaken and the crucial link between the Atlantic states and the bounties of the western lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. This stupendous project was a daunting challenge at every turn, for the financiers and politicians as well as the would-be engineers. With its emphasis on technological ingenuity, global economics, financial skills, and America's changing role in the world, Wedding of the Waters is a story for our own times. 20 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

More political history than canal building.......2007-06-27

I really looked forward to reading this book. As I would drive along the New York Thruway, I always thought the Erie Canal was beautiful, and often dreamed of taking a boat trip along it. I am an engineer and a sailor, and looked forward to a detailed explanation of how the canal was built.

When I got to the end of the book, I was quite disappointed. Although it is a worthwhile read, to me this book is more of a political history of New York State from 1810 to 1830 than a book on the building of the Erie Canal. I now know a lot about De Witt Clinton, Martin Van Buren, and Tammany Hall politics, but I really don't know all that much about the building of the canal itself.

I also felt that the author explained the basic economic impact of the canal a few dozen too many times. By page 100, I had it memorized that cutting transportation costs by a factor of 10 would revolutionize how farm commodities and manufactured goods were bought and sold. By page 200, I had the feeling that I was reading a high school essay that was being stretched from 1 page to meet the 5 page requirement.

Overall, I am still glad I bought the book and invested the time to read it. I'm just still looking for a book that explains how the canal was built.

Great read--but focuses on politics and economics.......2007-02-08

As other reviewers have pointed out, Bernstein gives short shrift to the technical aspects of the canal. However, this in no way detracts from the intent of the book which is to detail the particularly nasty politics involved in the construction of the canal as well as the economic ramifications. I am not an economist, nor particularly interested in economics, but this book is fascinating and generally well written. Bernstein's prose flows and most of his digressions are relevant. As a born, raised, and resident Westerner I had no idea of the importance of the Erie Canal to the development of the U.S.

I have two major quarrels with the book. First, my pet peeve about books of history and historical fiction (take note publishers, especially those of Patrick O'Brian): inadequate maps. There is one map in the book--it's in the front matter and not listed in the TOC. It doesn't include most of the pre- and post-canal place names described in the book. The Mohawk River, which features prominently in the story, isn't even shown! For those of us who have only changed planes in New York, this requires dragging around an atlas to read the book. It seems particularly inexcusable when the single map was generated relatively cheaply by GIS--you can see the pixelation of the DEM on the shaded relief of the map. Second, Bernstein uses "[sic]" a lot for nonstandard spelling, and inconsistently. Though historians and writers are divided on this stylistic point, at times it seems a bit churlish, especially when one considers that Webster's "Speller" wasn't published until 1783. It is annoying to read quotations by Washington, Jefferson, and their notable contemporaries with "[sic]" constantly appearing.

Regardless, a fine read on a subject I knew little about.

The biggest economic development before the civil war.......2006-12-29

The Erie Canal was a major factor in shaping the economic development of this country. It would open up the west and allow the untapped resources of America to be utilized. This book covers the political history and development of the canal showing how it was built and what happened to those who fought for it. It is very well written but could have been made clearer at times. There are so many interesting people associated with the canal that it can be easy to get lost in the story. Nonetheless this is an important part of American history and something that should be told. Highly recommend for those who want to understand how America became the power it is today.

The Erie Canal and the Making...but where is the map?.......2006-11-08

I found this book to be very interesting and well written. Having spent the past 50 years living within a few miles of the Erie Canal (the modern version), I had a particular interest in the book. The tortuous struggle to get support for the canal was well known to me but I had no idea that a canal following the general route of the Erie Canal had been proposed before the turn of the 17th century. But, there is no map of Upstate New York showing the route of the canal and some of the alternative routes that were considered. This did not matter much to me, as a long-time resident of upstate NY since I knew exactly where the various landmarks mentioned by the author are located but it would be a real problem for a reader who is not a local resident. I recommend that anyone buying this book also buy or otherwise acquire a map of New York State.

A Fine History of the Erie Canal.......2006-11-04

Peter Bernstein's Wedding of the Waters is an excellent history of the Erie Canal, a great technological development in the early 1800s. This canal led to the development of some of New York's most robust cities, such as Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo. Each had been small and undistinguished before the opening of the canal; each flourished afterward. The canal stretched over 360 miles from Albany to Buffalo, with another 150 miles from Albany to the ports of New York City.

The book discusses the pioneers who spoke of the great potential of a canal from Albany to Lake Erie (and other permutations as well)--and of those who made it real, with the patronage of Governor DeWitt Clinton being critical to the success of the venture. Clinton was steadfast in his support, even though political conflicts on occasion appeared to threaten the viability of the project. George Washington, earlier, had hoped to create economic development by making the Potomac River navigable throughout much of its length, to open the "West." This effort failed, making many nervous about such ventures.

The canal was a triumph of the creative spirit. One example is the series of locks to elevate the canal over the Niagara Escarpment at Lockport, New York. Another is the technology used to move the canal boats at a steady pace, along the towpaths paralleling the canal itself.

The canal was an economic success. As noted earlier, it spawned economic development along its path, helping to fuel the growth of cities. The revenues from the canal swiftly paid off the original cost of construction and produced revenues for the state.

As Henry Tudor said in 1831, "It certainly strikes the beholder with astonishment, to perceive what vast difficulties can be overcome by the pigmy arms of little mortal man, aided by science and directed by superior skill."

Container Port Production and Economic Efficiency

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Container Port Production and Economic Efficiency
Tengfei Wang , Kevin Cullinane , and Dong-Wook Song
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Selling the Sea: An Inside Look at the Cruise Industry

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Great Insiders View of the Business
drcruise
Facsinating!
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Critical praise for two of the brightest lights in the retail travel industry… "Carnival attracted passengers largely because of the effort [Bob] Dickinson oversaw to change the image of cruising from a pastime for the rich to a vacation for the masses. That change in consumer perception was perhaps the single most important event in the development of the modern cruise business." —Miami Herald "Andy Vladimir, marketing superstar, living legend, award-winning professor and scholar, is known as `Mr. Quotable Quote' by industry professionals everywhere. His business and academic achievements easily put him on top." —Anthony G. Marshall Dean, School of Hospitality Management Florida International University

Customer Reviews:

Great Insiders View of the Business.......2007-07-23

This is a fascinating account of the US-based Cruise business. Now in its second edition, the authors contrast their views of a decade ago with where the business is today. The strongest part of the book in my view is the discussion of the different ways the cruise lines have built - and plan to continue to build their businesses. Interestingly the clarity of the strategic thinking varies from the clear and focussed (Carnival) to some other, weaker, waffle. Reading this it becomes clear that Carnival's growth to number one has been no accident. Other parts of the book are not as strong (the history section has some schoolboy howlers) or not as interesting to this reader (how to run a Travel Agency). Nonetheless, an invaluable insight into the cruise business, and a lot better than some of the other gossip-driven 'histories' out there.

drcruise.......2007-07-19

Another hit by the authors whose book provides insight into the workings and the "goings on" of the cruise industry. This book should be read by all interested in the cruise industry to include practioners, travel agents and academics.

Facsinating!.......2002-10-02

This book provides a facinating behind the scenes look at the cruise industry, from the ship to the home office to the travel agent. I was expecially surprised on how broad based it was, although Carnival (Bob Dickinson is president of that company) does play a prominent role. For example, a section on advertising features old Carnival ads. However, the book does include quotes from presidents of all major cruise lines, and the book freely uses examples from other major cruise lines. That said, it is a great book if you want a behind the scenes look at the industry, or work in the travel industry.

definitely a text book.......2002-02-12

As a previous reviewer noted, thes is very much a business text book focusing on the cruise industry, probably aimed at people working in (or preparing for working in) travel agencies. There is some interesting general information in the early chapters, but then gets dry quickly.

The best I've read about the cruise industry.......1999-08-10

I have to admit I was a bit concerned about an "impartial" book about the cruise industry written by the president of the world's largest participant. I was dead wrong. Bob Dickinson and Andy Vladimir have written a no-holds-barred, painfully honest account of the state of today's cruise industry. They don't mince words when it comes to the actual decline of cruisers! They finish up with a case study of an ideal cruise only agency that makes sense.

Opportunities in Marine And Maritime Careers

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Opportunities in Marine And Maritime Careers
William Ray Heitzmann
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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International Maritime Transport: Perspectives (Routledge Advances in Maritime Studies)

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International Maritime Transport: Perspectives (Routledge Advances in Maritime Studies)
J. Mcconville
Manufacturer: Routledge
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The importance of the international maritime transport industry is difficult to overstate. This new book presents an interdisciplinary approach from a wide range of internationally-based experts.

International Maritime Transport represents a radical departure from previous works in its structure and approach. The section editors each discuss the state of the art in the opening chapter, before introducing a selection of works providing a wide-ranging analysis of the subject. Wide discretion of approach has provided literary freedom for individual opinion and analysis within the overall framework: this permits a level of innovation which is perhaps stifled by the more standardized model. Whilst each perspective can be seen as exclusive, together they form a comprehensive volume of issues in contemporary maritime transport.

Topics covered include: ports as interfaces; logistics; manpower and skills; financial risk and opportunities; the regulatory framework. Each chapter contains an introduction which explains the context of the chapter within the book and the contemporary state of the art. Under the editorship of maritime experts James McConville, Alfonso Morvillo and Heather Leggate, the book is sure to be of interest to students and academics working on maritime studies, as well as being useful to professionals and policy makers in the maritime industry.

Opportunities in Marine Science and Maritime Careers, revised edition (Opportunities in)

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ASIN: 0393060578

Book Description

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 twentieth 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. 32 pages of illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Survival of the fattest.......2007-10-01

Squeezing the history of whaling in America into a mere 370 pages of text is no easy task, but Eric Jay Dolin grapples manfully with his task.
He has enough factoids left over for dozens of page-long end notes.
With the possible exception of religion, no other aspect of our history is as well-documented as hunting whales. It seems that almost everyone who could write about whales felt compelled to.
The Basques, who started it all, and the Indians didn't write, but everybody else did. And whaling seemed to anticipate many of the great disputes of the colonial and early national period.
Generations before Sam Adams, "dangerous, rash and pig-headed" Long Island whaleman Sam Mulford was protesting taxation without representation.
More than a hundred years before John D. Rockefeller had heard about oil, the United Company of Spermaceti Chandlers had formed a spermaceti trust.
Before Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan, Capt. Mercator Cooper of the whaler Manhattan had forced the Shogun to crack the door -- and introduced the Japanese to their first contact with African-Americans.
There may be a wooden codfish hanging over the speaker's desk in the Massachusetts legislature, but whales brought in more money.
With such a wealth of material, Dolin necessarily skimps a few topics. Whaling may have been of utmost importance to Maui and Honolulu in the mid-19th century, but the islands rate only a couple of sentences in Dolin's big picture.
But I noticed only two important elements that he left out entirely.
He writes about women who went to sea in whalers, both the rare disguised seamen before the mast and the more numerous captain's wives (and sometimes children as well); but he does not mention the practice of some captains of hiring island women as "temporary wives" for the length of a cruise.
And while he mentions the taking of "scrag" whales in the colonial period, he treats these as undersized or sick right whales, ignoring a theory that the scrag was really the Atlantic gray whale.
The Atlantic gray, unlike the Pacific gray, is extinct, but what caused that is unknown. If it was hunting, then it is the only example of a cetacean that was killed off by men.
Dolin ends his tale in 1924, when the Wanderer set sail on what was to have been the last American whaling expedition of the Golden (and Wooden) Age.
Wanderer wrecked just outside the harbor.
By then, the steel-muscled harpooneers, the bucko mates and the gimlet-eyed captains of America's fabulous -- but veritable -- whaling era had been replaced by industrialized steel vessels from Norway, Britain, Russia and Japan.
The whales had won. They are still here, but the American whaleman is deader than the dodo.

The Amazing History of Whaling.......2007-09-20

"Leviathan" is popular history at it's best. Dolin provides a blend of fascinating economic data with amazing anecdotes that will keep the reader fascinated. The author writes early on that he has not chosen to give any 21st century disparagement to a decidedly unpolitically correct 19th century industry. For that, the reader should be thankful because constant proselytizing would have broken up the very neat narrative structure of the book. A few maps showing the centers of the whaling industry and the major whaling grounds may have been helpful, but Dolin's two sets of prints more then make up for it. Overall, a fascinating summer read for anyone interested in maritime history or for readers who want to know more about the interaction between humanity and these fascinating creatures.

Put this on the shelf, next to Moby Dick........2007-09-20

Very good book. Well written, lots of research, drawings, paintings. Historical and interesting. I would definitely recommend this book.

This book swallowed me whole!.......2007-09-18

The Stern Librarian has a Save The Whales bumper sticker on her car, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this book. The author makes it clear from the beginning that this is not a book about the ethics of hunting whales in contemporary society. Rather, it is an historical exploration of the rise and fall of American whaling as an industry. It is fascinating to see American history from the perspective of a whaler. War and peace only matter in this story insofar as they affected the markets for whale oil. Nantucket is the rolling-in-wealth whale-oil Kuwait of this story, and comes across as a vulnerable and opportunistic island without a country, quick to distance itself from the United States when it suited its interests. The author glides over many topics I wish he had developed more (such as the society whalers' wives made for themselves) but more than compensates with the sheer volume of stories and subjects he covers, heaviest on the mutinies and other fascinating crew issues. Never lost in the narrative is the overarching reality that this beneficial economic activity was leading to the inevitable disappearance of whales, first in coastal waters then even in perilous places like the Artic Ocean. One senses throughout that the author appreciates the enterprise of the hunters but sides with the hunted. The Stern Librarian (Call me Stern).

Well written, well researched.......2007-09-09

Dolin starts off saying there are entire libraries devoted to whaling and that he has harvested these rich archives to render a choice summation of the history of whaling - he does not get into modern conservation issues, ending the narrative in the 1920s. The book moves chronologically starting with native Americans; the first settlers on the Mayflower who found a beached whale; the rise and fall of the Quaker whaling community of Nantucket and New Bedford; to whaling's long demise after the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania. The focus on American whaling is significant because it represented about 90% of the worlds whaling prior to the 20th century, American whalers were the leaders and innovators.

I previously read Moby-Dick and Philbriock's excellent In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex and thought I might enjoy learning more. While these books are more focused and romantic, Dolin's survey is by comparison brief on detail and wide in scope, yet he retains a lot of the emotional awe and wonder of whaling, it is not a dry work (you might even say it's all wet). There is hardly a page that does not have a fascinating story and corresponding book in the footnotes for further reading (many of which are 19th century accounts out of copyright and freely available online through Google Books or Internet Archive) - the history of whaling is extensive and the jump off points many and varied. The footnotes, at over 75 pages of small font text, are almost a book within a book.

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