Marblehead author Eric Jay Dolin won the 2025 National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) Excellence in American History Book Award for Adult Nonfiction for his book “Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.”
This award “recognizes distinguished historical literary works of non-fiction and/or biographies that have made an original contribution to the body of historical knowledge or added new information to previously familiar materials.”
According to Dolin, “The reason I wrote the book, and the reason I think that it resonated so strongly with readers and award organizations, is that: In most of the histories of the American Revolution, there’s very little or nothing about privateering, and I think what I show in my book quite decisively is that privateering played a critical role in the United States winning the American Revolution.”
He added that “there were almost 2,000 privateering vessels that went out during the war,” and there were “tens of thousands of men who served on those vessels, and they brought back nearly 2,000 British prizes, or ships.”
“It was a very important element of our fight to win against the British during the American Revolution. The main message that I had in writing the book, and I think that comes through, is that privateering was often overlooked in histories and in people’s understanding of the American Revolution, and I argue that you can’t understand the American Revolution unless you know about the role that privateers played and how important they were to the ultimate success of the war,” Dolin said.
Dolin said that while “writers love winning awards,” “the most important thing when you write a book is to have readers.”
“I have a professional Facebook page, one with a blue check mark, and I get comments from people that I don’t know, I’ve never met, but they say, ‘Hey, I enjoyed your book. Thank you very much,’” Dolin said. “Or, the other day, a father asked me to sign a book for his daughter… She’s going to one of the military academies, and he wanted — as a graduation gift for high school — for me to sign a book with a meaningful inscription.
“I loved that. I sent him the book, and he said, ‘Oh, that was so great. It would mean so much to her,’ and that just makes your day when you hear from readers who like what you write because that’s what you’re doing it for.”
For more information on “Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution” or any of Dolin’s other books, check out his website: ericjaydolin.com.
