Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of eight New York Times best-selling works of American history, including “In the Heart of the Sea” (winner of the 2000 National Book Award); “Mayflower” (a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in history); a trilogy about the American Revolution that includes “Valiant Ambition” (winner of the George Washington Book Prize); and “Travels with George.” His latest, “The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World,” is scheduled for publication in October 2026. He lives on Nantucket Island, where he co-founded the Egan Maritime Institute.
David P.B. Stephens: I am going to keep this short, because I know you’re trying to get off the island [Nantucket], and the Steamship Authority waits for no man.
Nathaniel Philbrick: Right, exactly.
DS: I hear you are coming to the Vineyard.
NP: That’s right, in July.
DS: And you are no stranger to the Vineyard.
NP: No, being a Nantucketer and a sailor, I’ve been getting to the Vineyard one way or another ever since we’ve been on the island here. I’ve actually sailed on the Vineyard and stayed on the Vineyard long before we moved here, and have a lot of good friends there.
DS: You live on Nantucket. How did you wind up there?
NP: I was born in Boston, raised in Pittsburgh, where my father was an English professor. I met my wife while teaching sailing on the Cape. She grew up in West Falmouth. She got a law degree, and we had two children and were living outside Boston, where she was working at a law firm. I was at home with the kids trying to write, and the commute was driving both of us crazy. She saw an ad for an attorney at a firm on Nantucket. This was in ’86, and our kids were 1 and 4, and we decided to go for it. And neither of us knowing much about the island at all.
DS: So you know the Vineyard, and you know Nantucket. What would you say are the essential differences between them?
NP: They’re very different, really. Nantucket is basically half the size of the Vineyard. The historic town of Nantucket reminds me a lot of Edgartown. But you guys have very different communities all over the Island. Nantucket’s much more concentrated. Nantucket tends to attract people from the high-tech and financial world, while you guys get a lot of artistic, Hollywood writer types. There’s definitely a different character.
DS: Much as I admire “In the Heart of the Sea” as the tale of the loss of the Essex, what fascinated me most was your description of life on Nantucket in 1819. I know Vineyard history fairly well, but those two islands, only 28 miles apart, may as well have been in different galaxies.
NP: Yes. The Vineyard was very rural, agrarian, and this place was a little city in the middle of the sea.
DS: You are coming to the Vineyard on July 14 as a result of a collaboration between the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and the Vineyard Preservation Society. How did that come about?
NP: I was contacted by Laurel Reddington, who is now at the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society. I knew her through WMVY. I’ve been a huge fan of WMVY ever since we arrived on this island 40 years ago. It’s the best radio station in the world, definitely. I’ve got a very busy schedule this summer with the 250th American Revolution stuff, and we were able to figure out a date that worked. I’ve spoken at the Whaling Church before, and love the venue and look forward to returning.
DS: What is the focus of your presentation?
NP: I’ll be talking about the Revolution. I’ve written three books about it, plus a fourth about the trip Washington took as a sort of listening tour he went on as president. It’s called “Travels with George.” So, the Revolution — lessons from it, what we can take away today, a little bit about how it affected the islands — but primarily this is about the country as a whole.
DS: As a Vineyarder, I know about Grey’s Raid and the skirmish up at Aquinnah. How did the war affect Nantucketers? They seemed to be held in high regard in England. You quote Edmund Burke referring to them as “a new American breed.” What was the war’s impact on your island?
NP: It was devastating. Virtually all of Nantucket’s whaling oil went to London, and that was cut off. Nantucket struggled to be neutral, which was basically impossible. They ended up being attacked by both sides. Their sailors were impressed into the British Army and Navy. But the Nantucketers were by no means like Boston. They were, if anything, Loyalists. The last thing they wanted was a revolution, since England was their market.
DS: So you will speak about the American Revolution. The inevitable question is, How do we connect the events of 1776 with the realities of 2026? How do we celebrate this anniversary?
NP: I think we celebrate the fact that we are the longest living democratic republic on earth. And it seems the times are fraught, but in many ways the times have always been fraught. And we can look back to the Declaration of Independence as a kind of clarion call for an aspirational society — a society that is always trying to be better. There’s always a sense of disappointment and frustration, and crises. It’s kind of the American way. We were born in a revolution, and each generation is in the midst of its own revolution.
DS: And what will you be doing on this Fourth of July?
NP: I’m supposed to be an anchor-buddy on “Good Morning America,” in New York. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. I think I’ll be commenting on the tall ships. We’ll see.
DS: I hope you get to see some fireworks.
NP: Yeah.
DS: I wish you greasy luck.
Nathaniel Philbrick will speak at the Old Whaling Church on Tuesday, July 14, at 5 pm. Tickets are available at bit.ly/MVM_PhilbrickJuly14.