In his "Introduction" to the 1998 Oxford World's Classic edition of Moby-Dick, Tony Tanner suggests that the novel could only have been written in America and only in the mid-nineteenth century. The country then "seemed to stand at a new height, or new edge, of triumphant dominion and expansionary confidence in the western world." Tanner and others point out that, during Melville's life, the United States emerged from a colonial society to a world power with its own significant history and mythology. There were also tremendous advances in technology — the development of the railroad, telegraph, and telephone enabling easier travel and communication. Democracy was on the rise, and the country was ready to produce literary voices of its own.
At the time that the novel was published, the terrible destruction of the Civil War was not yet imagined. In fact, the Compromise of 1850, originated by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, effectively postponed the conflict eleven years by admitting one territory as a free state (California) while allowing slave owners to populate others (Utah and New Mexico). It was a prosperous, optimistic time in America, but some scholars argue that this very frame of mind kept many readers away from Melville's most interesting work because the novel was too dark or complicated for its time. In letters to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville himself discusses his difficulty in finding an adequate audience.
