A Book of Waves

Reviews / Votes

"An interesting overview of how natural ocean waves permeate society in many, often unrecognized ways from the standpoint of scientists who study them. This book encompasses historical and scientific perspectives on, sociological and anthropological insights into, and engineering and military challenges of humans' connections with waves. The ethnographic approach blends scientific knowledge with insights from scientists studying waves. . . . Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals." - N. W. Hinman (Choice) "A Book of Waves promises to be of interest to a diverse set of scholars. Most immediately, the book will be useful for scholars teaching or researching topics in the history and anthropology of physical sciences, the history of science and its relationship to American and other empire, colonialism and postcolonialism, and their reckoning with histories of militarism in the Pacific and elsewhere. As it plays with the form of a monograph, the book will be interesting for those hoping to similarly experiment with the form of nonfiction narrative. . . . Thinking and building a livable world that reconciles history and science's imbrication in it, with hopes for more just futures, is hard work that tacitly demands much from the already overburdened, but A Book of Waves is an exemplary case of how scholarship can help us to get to where we're going." - Jonathan Galka (H-Environment)