Whale oil lit the cities and greased the machines of the Industrial Revolution. In light of its importance, competition between whalers was high. Far from courts and law enforcement, competing crews of American whalers not known for their gentility and armed with harpoons tended to resolve disputes at sea over ownership of whales. Left to settle arguments on their own, whalemen created norms and customs to decide ownership of whales pursued by multiple crews. The Law of the Whale Hunt provides an innovative examination of how property law was created in the absence of formal legal institutions regulating the American whaling industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using depositions, court testimony, logbooks, and other previously unused primary sources, Robert Deal tells an exciting story of American whalers hunting in waters from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and the Sea of Okhotsk.

Before commercial whaling was outlawed in the 1980s, diplomats, scientists, bureaucrats, environmentalists, and sometimes even whalers themselves had attempted to create an international regulatory framework that would allow for a sustainable whaling industry. In Whales and Nations, Kurkpatrick Dorsey tells the story of the international negotiation, scientific research, and industrial development behind these efforts —and their ultimate failure. Whales and Nations begins in the early twentieth century, when new technology revived the fading whaling industry and made whale hunting possible on an unprecedented scale. By the 1920s, declining whale populations prompted efforts to develop “rational”—what today would be called sustainable—whaling practices. But even though almost everyone involved with commercial whaling knew that the industry was on an unsustainable path, Dorsey argues, powerful economic, political, and scientific forces made failure nearly inevitable. Based on a deep engagement with diplomatic history, Whales and Nations provides a unique perspective on the challenges facing international conservation projects. This history has profound implications for today’s pressing questions of global environmental cooperation and sustainability. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QsLlM5KTx0

Dolphins have long been attributed with intelligence, but do they have souls? Self-awareness? Compassion? Scott Taylor, Director of the Cetacean Studies Institute, investigates the history, mythology, and science surrounding these creatures and emerges with a resounding yes. And not only do whales and dolphins merit our attention and respect in their own right: they are an index to what our future as a species can be. In this multi-faceted cetology compendium, Taylor surveys the portrayal of dolphins and whales in works of literature as disparate as Moby Dick and Sumerian legend, examines biologist John Lilly's research on interspecies communication, and explores the benefits of dolphin-assisted swimming therapy for disabled children and adults. Looking at the world from the perspective of one of these "souls in the sea," Taylor suggests that cetaceans are an ideal bridge between humanity and nature. Poetically written and thoughtfully illustrated with photos and drawings, Souls in the Sea is a comprehensive celebration of the biology, history, and mystique of dolphins and whales.

Why are you here? What is life for? What are you meant to do? Robert Holden helps you go from looking for your purpose to living it. (Hint: It’s not just about you.) "The best book on purpose I've ever read! Accept this invitation to awaken to the very reason you're here on Earth." — Mike Dooley, New York Times best-selling author of Infinite Possibilities and Life on Earth "How do I find my life’s purpose?" In the 10-year run of Robert Holden's call-in radio show, Shift Happens!, his listeners asked that question more often than any other, by far. It seems everybody is looking for their purpose, and yet we all struggle to recognize it and live it. In the paperback edition of Higher Purpose, Holden takes readers on an epic journey of self-discovery that includes the hero’s journey with Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung's work on true vocation, Victor Frankl's search for meaning, a pilgrimage with St. Francis of Assisi, the poetry of Wordsworth and Rilke, and much more. The journey has four stages: "The Call" explores "the calling" inside you to live a more meaningful life. "The Path" helps you to realize what inspires you, what brings you alive, to follow your joy, and to do more of what you love. "The Ordeal" tackles the inner blocks, the road of trials, and challenges you must overcome to live your higher purpose. "The Victory" encourages you to not betray yourself, to "sing your whole song," and to keep on saying YES to your soul's high adventure. In Higher Purpose, Holden explores three distinct levels of purpose: your unique purpose, a shared purpose, and the greater purpose of life. He offers inquiries, meditations, and journaling exercises to help you live your purpose every day. And he shares stories from his own life and conversations with a host of remarkable people—Maya Angelou, Louise Hay, Jean Houston, Matthew Fox, Robert Thurman, Caroline Myss, Andrew Harvey, Wayne Dyer, Oprah Winfrey, and more. "I hope Robert Holden's beautiful books, like this one . . . keep reaching more and more people and aid their heart to unfurl." — Daniel Ladinsky, author of The Gift and The Subject Tonight Is Love

It’s almost impossible to imagine spending eight months at sea “without once putting foot on land.” But that’s exactly what whalers experienced when playing the dangerous “game of chance,” hunting down leviathans for oil and bone—all for a “lay,” or share, of the vessel’s spoils. A Game of Chance is the first comprehensive, in-depth study of British North American South Seas whaling. Author Andrea Kirkpatrick takes readers on a series of fascinating and sometimes fantastical journeys as she chronicles in great detail the story of a largely forgotten industry that operated out of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ports from the 1760s to 1850. Kirkpatrick plumbed the depths of myriad logbooks and journals to piece together the often-murky tales of an astonishing number of ships. In this treatise covering a century of whaling, she shares details such as ownership, tonnage, voyages, captains’ pedigrees, and names of crewmen, including nascent whaler Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick. Hoping for “greasy luck,” the men who manned these ships found both camaraderie and competition as they hunted the world’s whaling grounds from Cape Horn to Kamchatka, many circumnavigating the globe during their careers. They battled squalls and high seas, scurvy and venereal disease, heartbreak and homesickness—and sometimes each other. Many never returned home, their bodies committed to the deep or buried on foreign land. Written in two parts—landward and seaward—Kirkpatrick’s clear prose and adoption of whaling lingua franca brings this high-risk venture to the fore with authenticity, newly revealed facts, and remarkable stories of adventure.

By extending their voyages to all oceans from the 1760s onward, whaling vessels from North America and Europe spanned a novel net of hunting grounds, maritime routes, supply posts, and transport chains across the globe. For obtaining provisions, cutting firewood, recruiting additional men, and transshipping whale products, these highly mobile hunters regularly frequented coastal places and islands along their routes, which were largely determined by the migratory movements of their prey. American-style pelagic whaling thus constituted a significant, though often overlooked factor in connecting people and places between distant world regions during the long nineteenth century. Focusing on Africa, this book investigates side-effects resulting from stopovers by whalers for littoral societies on the economic, social, political, and cultural level. For this purpose it draws on eight local case studies, four from Africa’s west coast and four from its east coast. In the overall picture, the book shows a broad range of effects and side-effects of different forms and strengths, which it figures as a "grey undercurrent" of global history.

A Boston Globe Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 Amazon.com Editors pick as one of the 10 best history books of 2007 Winner of the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History "The best history of American whaling to come along in a generation." --Nathaniel Philbrick

Whales: large, mysterious, intelligent, and endangered. Over the years, large-scale commercial whaling has gradually devoured several species, resulting in a global moratorium issues by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986. Current debate centers on the validity of this ban given strong opposition from whaling communities in Norway and Japan, Iceland’s withdrawal frm the IWC, and reputed recovery of some whale populations. The International Politics of Whaling is a fascinating study of the politics, environmental dilemmas, and ethical questions surrounding this highly controversial issue. Peter Stoett seeks to clarify the multidimensional nature of whaling as well as its relation to other crucial environmental concerns such as ozone depletion, global warming, and marine pollution. Stoett combines a sensitivity to ecological questios with a hard assessment of the political realities of the international community in order to assess this important issue.

"I just begin to find out that whaling will never do for me and have determined to leave the ship here if possible." That sentiment, expressed by a foremast hand aboard the ship Caroline in 1843, is one shared by many of the whalemen in this fascinating book. Interest in Herman Melville's Moby Dick has contributed to a substantial literature on the history and lore of the industry. But not until now has the vast body of surviving whaleship logs and journals been used to paint an encompassing picture of the difficult but colorful life aboard nineteenth-century American whaling vessels. Briton Cooper Busch, author of a definitive history of the American sealing industry, in this book only incidentally discusses the actual chase for whales. His focus instead is the life of whalemen at sea, and particularly the harsh discipline that kept men aboard through long and often dispiriting years. Busch depicts the complex social world aboard ship, defining and detailing such issues as crime and punishment, competing racial elements, the social distance between officers and men, sexual behavior, and the role of women aboard ships. For oppressed, discouraged, or simply bored whalemen, several escapes existed, from the rarest of all mutiny through labor protests of various types, to individual desertion or appeal to an American consul abroad. To each of these topics Busch devotes a chapter. He also provides glimpses of those occasional moments of relief such as a Fourth of July celebration and such somber moments as a death at sea. Fascinating details and original quotations from individual whalemen make this book more than a study of general trends. For anyone with even a casual interest in whaling, it is indispensable.