The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
Author	Mark Kurlansky
Language	English
Genre	Non-Fiction
Publisher	Penguin Group
Publication date	2006
Media type	Print (Hardback and Paperback)
ISBN	0-345-47638-7
OCLC	60550567
Dewey Decimal	641.6/94 22
LC Class	TX754.O98 K87 2006

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell is a book by Mark Kurlansky. It follows the history of New York City and the renowned oyster beds in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary. The subject of the book is the history of oysters in New York City.

Errors

The book states that "an Oyster has a brain", but they do not. (pp. 50).
George Washington never had children, but the book states Philip, the son of Washington, was put in charge of redistributing Loyalist-held properties in New York City after the Revolutionary War (pp. 92).
The book states that Robert Fulton invented the submarine (p. 98), but this statement distorts the history of submarines; various people had envisioned submarines in earlier eras, and a few had been built (such as the Turtle).
The book states that the 3477 deaths at the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War was almost equal to the number who died in all eight years of the Revolutionary War (pp. 201). However about 8000 American Revolutionaries died in battle, with 25,000 dead from all causes over the course of that war.^[1]

^ American dead and wounded: John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed, pp. 249–50. The lower figure for number of wounded comes from Chambers, p. 849.

The Big Oyster on GoogleBooks
Elizabeth Royte (2006-03-05). "The Mollusk That Made Manhattan". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-03. - New York Times book review

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