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Eric Jay Dolin

Biography

Eric Jay Dolin

Eric Jay Dolin's previous book, A FURIOUS SKY: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes, received a number of accolades, including being chosen by the Washington Post as one of 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2020, by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 (in addition to being a Kirkus Prize finalist), by the Library Journal and Booklist as one of the Best Science & Technology Books of 2020, and by the New York Times Book Review as an "Editor's Choice."

Other books include LEVIATHAN: The History of Whaling in America, which was chosen as one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, and also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U.S. Maritime History; and BLACK FLAGS, BLUE WATERS: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates, which was chosen as a "Must-Read" book for 2019 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Author's Club.

A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in environmental policy, Dolin lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his family.

Eric Jay Dolin

Books by Eric Jay Dolin

by Eric Jay Dolin - History, Nonfiction

The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character ---- above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. In REBELS AT SEA, bestselling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory.

by Eric Jay Dolin - History, Nonfiction

Hurricanes menace North America from June through November every year, each as powerful as 10,000 nuclear bombs. These megastorms will likely become more intense as the planet continues to warm, yet too often we treat them as local disasters and TV spectacles, unaware of how far-ranging their impact can be. As bestselling historian Eric Jay Dolin contends, we must look to our nation’s past if we hope to comprehend the consequences of the hurricanes of the future. With A FURIOUS SKY, Dolin has created a sprawling account of our encounters with hurricanes, from the nameless storms that threatened Columbus’ New World voyages to the destruction wrought in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.

by Eric Jay Dolin - History, Nonfiction

Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, BLACK FLAGS, BLUE WATERS reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” --- spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s --- when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them.

by Eric Jay Dolin - History, Nonfiction

Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, BRILLIANT BEACONS traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system from its earliest days, highlighting the political, military and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation's hardscrabble coastlines. Beginning with "Boston Light," America's first lighthouse, Eric Jay Dolin shows how the story of America --- from colony to regional backwater, to fledgling nation, and eventually to global industrial power --- can be illustrated through its lighthouses.

by Eric Jay Dolin - History, Nonfiction

Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving 19th-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire.