In a series of short chapters exploring Herman Melville’s career and the themes of ‘Moby-Dick,’ Nathaniel Philbrick brings new meaning to the novel. ‘Moby-Dick’ is an environmental novel, an exploration of the dangers facing a young democracy, and an expression of Melville’s writerly influences, especially Shakespeare and his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Philbrick delights in re-reading this big, baggy novel because, as he describes it, “‘Moby-Dick’ is a true epic, embodying almost every powerful American archetype as it interweaves creation myths, revenge narratives, folktales, and the conflicting impulses to create and to destroy, all played across the globe’s vast oceanic stage” (64).