Nathaniel Philbrick

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...

"The American Revolution may have been started by a group of citizen-soldiers on a green in Lexington, Massachusetts, but it was won on a choppy patch of water off Chesapeake Bay. In Bunker Hill and Valiant Ambition, Nathaniel Philbrick gave us a new and provocative way of looking at the war that created the United States. His latest book is the capstone of that enterprise, focusing on the last year of the war, and is the culmination of Philbrick's...

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.

"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...

After a perilous journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower's passengers were saved from certain destruction with the help of the Natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years a fragile peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Natives learned to work together. But that trust was broken with the next generation of leaders, and a conflict erupted that nearly wiped out English and natives alike.

A book about a tiny island with a huge history, from the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye.

“For everyone who loves Nantucket Island this is the indispensable book.” —Russell Baker
In his first book of history, Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond...

A charming memoir of midlife by the bestselling author of Mayflower and In the Hurricane's Eye, recounting his attempt to recapture a national sailing championship he'd won at twenty-two.
“There had been something elemental and all consuming about a Sunfish. Nothing could compare to the exhilaration of a close race in a real blow—the wind howling and spray flying as my Sunfish and I punched through the waves...

When this novel was published it generated a fascination with the sinking of the Titanic that has lasted for years. In this dramatic and historic re-creation of the bravery and agony that marked that fateful night, distinguished author and historian Walter Lord paints a vivid portrait of the last hours of the Titanic's first and final voyage.

Filmmaker David Shaerf takes us on a journey into the world of "Moby-Dick". On the way he meets artists, musicians and fans who introduce him to the "Great American Novel."