In this brilliant portrait of the oceans' unlikely hero, H. Bruce Franklin shows how menhaden have shaped America's natural--and national--history, and why a single company now threatens their crucial ecological mission. The same pudgy little fish that once saved the Pilgrims from starvation and helped power the industrial revolution are today being ground up by the billions and turned into everything from linoleum to lipstick. The massive harvest isn't just devastating one fish, but the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. In Franklin's vibrant prose, the menhaden's decline becomes an adventure story, an exciting exploration of American history, and an inspiring call to action.

H. Bruce Franklin is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. He has authored or edited eighteen books, including War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination, M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America, Prison Writing in Twentieth-Century America, and Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. Franklin has lectured widely and his hundreds of articles and reviews have appeared in publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, Science, The Nation, and Discover.