Washington Post • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2020Finalist • Kirkus Prize for NonfictionKirkus Reviews • Best Nonfiction Books of 2020Library Journal • Best Science & Technology Books of 2020Booklist • 10 Top Sci-Tech Books of 2020New York Times Book Review • Editor's ChoiceWith A Furious Sky, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin tells the history of America itself ...

The true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812—a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival.In Left for Dead, Eric Jay Dolin—“one of today’s finest writers about ships and the sea” (American Heritage)—tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago du...

**Winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval LiteratureWinner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book AwardA Massachusetts Center for the Book "Must-Read"Finalist for the New England Society Book AwardFinalist for the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book AwardSamuel Eliot Morison Book Award for Naval LiteratureNational Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) Excellence in American History Book AwardThe bestselling author...

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“An exciting and at times almost unbelievably dramatic story.” —Michael O’Donnell, Wall Street JournalNew York Times • “The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2026”Goodreads • "Readers’ Most Anticipated Books of Summer… and the Rest of the Year!"Kirkus Reviews • "40 Hottest Reads for Summer of 2026"Book Riot • Best New Nonfiction Releases of 2026An Indepe...

"What Moby-Dick is to whales, Brilliant Beacons is to lighthouses—a transformative account of a familiar yet mystical subject." —Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The Four VoyagesIn this "magnificent compendium" (New Republic), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin presents the definitive history of American lighthouses, and in so doing "illuminate[s] the history of America itself" (Entertainment Weekly). Treating read...

With surprising tales of vicious mutineers, imperial riches, and high-seas intrigue, Black Flags, Blue Waters is “rumbustious enough for the adventure-hungry” (Peter Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle).Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” - spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s - when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of N...

In Left for Dead, Eric Jay Dolin—“one of today’s finest writers about ships and thesea” (American Heritage)—tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounterbetween an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a Britishwarship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812.Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailorsand two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard,

The heroic story of the founding of the US 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, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers ...

New York Times • “The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2026”An astonishing true story—one of the most gripping maritime sagas of the nineteenth century—told by our era’s “expert literary steersman” (Washington Post).From the best-selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters comes the story of the American whaleship Mentor, wrecked in 1832 on a r...

In a work rich in maritime lore and brimming with original historical detail, Eric Jay Dolin, the bestselling author of Leviathan, presents the most comprehensive history of American lighthouses ever written, telling the story of America through the prism of its beloved coastal sentinels. Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fo...

Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships.Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that su...

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. Bestselling author 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. Through ...