Eric Jay Dolin > Quotes

“The heroic and often tragic stories of American whalemen were renowned. They sailed the world’s oceans and brought back tales filled with bravery, perseverance, endurance, and survival. They mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, sang, spun yarns, scrimshawed, and recorded their musings and observations in journals and letters. They survived boredom, backbreaking work, tempestuous seas, floggings, pirates, putrid food, and unimaginable cold. Enemies preyed on them in times of war, and competitors envied them in times of peace. Many whalemen died from violent encounters with whales and from terrible miscalculations about the unforgiving nature of nature itself. And through it all, whalemen, those “iron men in wooden boats” created a legacy of dramatic, poignant, and at times horrific stories that can still stir our emotions and animate the most primal part of our imaginations. “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme,” proclaimed Herman Melville, and the epic story of whaling is one of the mightiest themes in American history.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America

“American whale oil lit the world. It was used in the production of soap, textiles, leather, paints, and varnishes, and it lubricated the tools and machines that drove the Industrial Revolution. The baleen cut from the mouths of whales shaped the course of feminine fashion by putting the hoop in hooped skirts and giving form to stomachtightening
and chest-crushing corsets. Spermaceti, the waxy substance from the heads of sperm whales, produced the brightest- and cleanest-burning candles the world has ever known, while ambergris, a byproduct of irritation in a sperm whale’s bowel, gave perfumes great staying power and was worth its weight in gold.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America

“Over time, it is all too common for people to lose touch with their heritage, as the thrill and immediacy of the present crowds out the echoes and lessons of the past. It would be a shame if that were to happen with respect to the fur trade. It is a seminal part of who we are as a nation, and how we came to be.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America

“Most of the hurricanes in the North Atlantic originate not over the water, as some may think, but over the southern flanks of the Sahara desert.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes

“And then there were the looters, the vermin who far too often are the handmaidens of tragedy.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes

“an ordinary hurricane releases the same amount of energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs. For a major hurricane the number is higher still.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes

“Far from being misanthropic loners with anger issues, most of these pirates had lives that were intimately intertwined with the communities from which they came, and to which they one day hoped to return to enjoy their spoils. They viewed piracy as a job, not a lifestyle.”
― Eric Jay Dolin, Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates

“August 24, 1992, a tropical disturbance morphed into tropical storm Katrina”
― Eric Jay Dolin, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes