Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602?1890

Nantucket is a tiny island with a huge history. In his first book of history, Away Off Shore, New York Times bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories - great and obscure, famous and infamous - behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history that spans the years 1602 to 1890. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a "Native American ghost town" but actually found a fully realized society, through the rise and fall of the then-thriving whaling industry, to the island's slow decline as a center of commerce in the post-Civil War years, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.