Two Years Before the Mast

Fascinating view into life on a ship in 1830's, as well as a portrait of early California that anyone with a connection to the state would appreciate. This was my first book about sailing, not counting some Jules Verne stuff I read as a child, so I enjoyed learning about long-distance travel in the age of sail. Descriptions of life in the young coastal towns that Dana visited – San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey – were illuminating and, taking into account attitudes of the time, probably as balanced as one can expect.