Brilliant Beacons ─ A History of the American Lighthouse

In a work rich in maritime lore and brimming with original historical detail, Eric Jay Dolin, the best-selling author of Leviathan, presents the definitive history of American lighthouses. Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America’s lighthouse system from its earliest days, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation’s hardscrabble coastlines. Beginning with the Boston Lighthouse, America’s first lighthouse, Dolin shows how the story of America, from colony to regional backwater to fledgling nation and eventually to global industrial power, can be illustrated through its lighthouses—from New England to the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Coast, all the way to Alaska. In Dolin’s hands we see how each of these beacons tells its own story of political squabbling, technological advancement, engineering marvel, and individual derring-do.