Even in the Lawless Seas

Herman Melville is traditionally understood as a writer of the open seas, seeking freedom from the constraints of law, politics, and power. This book offers a transformative reading, revealing a different Melville – one who viewed the ocean as a theater of contested sovereignties and crumbling constitutions. Drawing on his experiences under sail and his reflections on whales and the life of the sea, Melville learned to read nature with distinctively political eyes; in each of these contexts and more, he told stories of people escaping from one legal order only to find another. His work illuminates entangled zones of multiple jurisdictions where discretionary powers of conscience and judgment remain vital means for finding justice, equity, and mercy in the tempestuous world in which we live.