The Old Merchant Marine

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt addressed the American Historical Association to call for American history to be written as compelling stories of literary quality. Editor Allen Johnson of Yale University responded by publishing the Chronicles of America series: 50 succinct volumes on regional and thematic American history. These books, intended for secondary schools and college students, are expository works of American history composed by competent historians in the 1920's, well before the special pleading and upending of social norms typical of histories after 1970. This series is focused on the mainstream of American political life and leadership from its initial volumes on Native Americans and European colonists to its final volumes on Woodrow Wilson, Canada, and the Hispanic Republics to our South.

The Old Merchant Marine, volume 36 of the Chronicles of America Series, is a history of the maritime industry of the Northeast. Paine documents the story of whaling, trade, shipbuilding, and the maritime interests of early American politics and war. The privateers of the War for Independence, and 1812, the Atlantic pirates and smugglers, the development of the Navy, the operations of the American shipbuilders and maritime industries, and the business of the shipowners and merchants all figure in his narrative. Paine was a prolific historian of Atlantic pirates and maritime towns of New England, in addition to producing stage plays and fiction. He is also the author of The Fight for a Free Sea, #17 of the Chronicles series.

This work contains a contemporary bibliography of maritime histories of America by the editor.

This book has been formatted and typeset for Tall Men Books. It is not a facsimile reprint.