WhiteJacket or, The World in a ManofWar is the fifth book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1850. The book is based on the authors fourteen months service in the United States Navy, aboard the frigate USS Neversink (actually USS United States). Based on Melvilles experiences as a common seaman aboard the frigate USS United States from 1843 to 1844 and stories that other sailors told him, the novel is severely critical of virtually every aspect of American naval life and thus qualifies as Melvilles most politically strident work. At the time, though, the one thing that journalists and politicians focused on in the novel was its graphic descriptions of flogging and the horrors caused by its arbitrary use in fact, because Harper Bros. made sure the book got into the hands of every member of Congress, WhiteJacket was instrumental in abolishing flogging in the U.S. Navy forever. Melville scholars also acknowledge the huge number of parallels between WhiteJacket and Billy Budd and view the former as "a major source for naval matters" in the latter.The novel takes its title from the outer garment that the eponymous main character fashions for himself on board ship, with materials at hand, being in need of a coat sufficient for the rounding of Cape Horn. Due to a shipwide rationing of tar, however, WhiteJacket is forever denied his wish to tar the exterior of his coat and thus waterproof it. This causes him to have two neardeath experiences, once...

Binding: Paperback;308 pages; Publisher: Bibliotech Press; Classification: N/A; Weight: 496.03 g; Dimensions: N/A

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