In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months...

Recounts the events of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution, tracing the experiences of Patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren, a newly recruited George Washington, and British General William Howe. Boston, Massachusetts in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from citizens to vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts...

"Does George Washington still matter? The bestselling author argues for his unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new President through the former colonies, now an unsure nation. A new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into one narrative. When George Washington became president in 1798, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative...

Little Bighorn and Custer are names synonymous in the American imagination with unmatched bravery and spectacular defeat. Mythologized as Custer's Last Stand, the June 1876 battle was also, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. The author sketches in details about the two larger-than-life antagonists: Sitting Bull, and George Armstrong Custer.

"The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 was one of the most ambitious undertakings of the nineteenth century and one of the largest voyages of discovery the Western world had ever seen - six magnificent sailing vessels and a crew of hundreds that included botanists, geologists, mapmakers, and biologists, all under the command of the young, brash Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Their goal was to cover the Pacific Ocean, top to bottom, and to plant the...

Acclaimed historian and New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick has earned a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize nomination for his extraordinary works. Here he carries readers back to the 1876 battle in Montana mythologized as "Custer's Last Stand." Focusing on the charismatic Sitting Bull and the recklessly brave George Armstrong Custer, Philbrick constructs a riveting narrative of the battle that became the archetypal

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Twelve-year-old Benjamin Russell of Boston experiences the Revolutionary War from the Boston Tea Party of 1773 through the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Includes historical note.

This anthology of essays captures the full sweep of America's maritime experience, with narratives from voyagers from the 17th century to the 20th century. Included are writings from Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, and more.

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. This story reveals the encounter's harrowing aftermath, as the ship's surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive.