American Epic by Samuel S Postell

American Epic by Samuel S Postell

American Epic: Philosophy, Power, and Impiety in Melville’s Moby-Dick offers a study of Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab as an “American Achilles” whose rebellion against nature and nature’s God anticipates the rise of modern tyranny. Drawing on classical sources such as Homer and Shakespeare, and engaging American political thought from Tocqueville to Voegelin, the book argues that Melville prophetically exposes the dangers inherent in science, politics, and the will to power.
Melville’s Ahab is a figure who seeks freedom through perfect power, rejecting natural limits, transcending humility, and refusing all moral restraint. Against this destructive impulse, Melville offers Ishmael as a counter-example: a figure who discovers meaning not through domination, but through wonder, community, and acceptance of his inherent human limitations. Samuel S. Postell situates Moby-Dick as the American epic precisely because it confronts the deepest tensions of liberty, authority, faith, and ambition. By providing a close textual reading of Moby-Dick alongside the essential themes of ancient epics, modern philosophy, and nineteenth-century political crises, this book shows why Melville should be considered one of America’s most profound critics of tyranny and one of its most serious defenders of liberty.

Samuel Postell is assistant director of the Lyceum Scholars Program at Clemson University, where he teaches political and legal theory.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781666977219
ISBN 10	1666977217
Title	American Epic
Author	Samuel S Postell
Series	Politics Literature And Film Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2027-02-04
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.