In the final chapter of Moby-Dick, the Pequod, rammed and crushed by the White Whale, circles slowly and sinks into the sea, drawing the crew into the vortex, down to their watery graves. Only one man lived to tell the tale, and the story he told has been acclaimed as the Modern Epic. Now, it takes place in a newly revealed and unexpected context, as the climax of Melville’s Epic of History, which is the subject of this book.
