"Peter Nichols has crafted a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative...A terrific read."
-Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In The Heart of the Sea

In 1871, America’s last fleet of whaling ships was destroyed in an arctic ice storm. Miraculously, 1,218 men, women and children survived, but the disaster was catastrophic at home.

Oil and Ice is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America’s first oil economy, and the fate of today’s petroleum industry.