Whaling Captains of Color

Whaling Captains of Color America's First Meritocracy By Skip Finley By Monica Allard Cox Whaling was not a profession most crew members would choose if they had better options. Skip Finley paints a harrowing picture of whaling and how its very nature—dangerous,...

Book Review: Rising

Dispatches from the New American Shore   by Monica Allard Cox From the 18th century on, everyone from farmers to city leaders to railroad barons filled in millions of acres of wetlands across the U.S., often with federal government support. In 1977, President...

Book Review: Other Minds

Book Review: Other Minds Search YouTube for terms like octopus or cuttlefish—members of the class of cephalopods—and typical results fall into two categories. The first reflects the intelligence of the cephalopod (“Octopus Escapes Jar”), the second, its camouflage...

Book Review: The Devil’s Cormorant

Book Review: The Devil’s Cormorant The cormorant’s reputation is, if nothing else, complicated. They are revered in Japan, where fishermen have used the birds under imperial protection for hundreds of years. They are reviled in Henderson Harbor, N.Y., where...