The Early Republic and the Sea by William S. Dudley,Michael J. Crawford

In this book, a multi-disciplinary group of scholars explore the diversity of the early republic’s seafaring heritage. The subjects treated include smuggling in New England, the American model for the China trade, the undeclared naval war with France, the controversial attack by an American warship on a British merchantman shortly after the end of the War of 1812, and adjudicating the slave trade. Several scholars also address literary depiction of the nation's relationship to the ocean, especially in the work of James Fenimore Cooper.