The Sounding of the Whale

Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century

D. Graham Burnett

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English

Chicago University Press
24 September 2013

Mathematics & Sciences; History of science; Zoology: Mammals

From the Bible’s “Canst thou raise leviathan with a hook?” to Captain Ahab’s “From Hell’s heart I stab at thee!,” from the trials of Job to the legends of Sinbad, whales have breached in the human imagination as looming figures of terror, power, confusion, and mystery.

In the twentieth century, however, our understanding of and relationship to these superlatives of creation underwent some astonishing changes, and with The Sounding of the Whale, D. Graham Burnett tells the fascinating story of the transformation of cetaceans from grotesque monsters, useful only as wallowing kegs of fat and fertilizer, to playful friends of humanity, bellwethers of environmental devastation, and, finally, totems of the counterculture in the Age of Aquarius. When Burnett opens his story, ignorance reigns: even Nature was misclassifying whales at the turn of the century, and the only biological study of the species was happening in gruesome Arctic slaughterhouses. But in the aftermath of World War I, an international effort to bring rational regulations to the whaling industry led to an explosion of global research—and regulations that, while well-meaning, were quashed, or widely flouted, by whaling nations, the first shot in a battle that continues to this day. The book closes with a look at the remarkable shift in public attitudes toward whales that began in the 1960s, as environmental concerns and new discoveries about whale behavior combined to make whales an object of sentimental concern and public adulation.

A sweeping history, grounded in nearly a decade of research, The Sounding of the Whale tells a remarkable story of how science, politics, and simple human wonder intertwined to transform the way we see these behemoths from below.

By: D. Graham Burnett
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 15mm, Spine: 5mm
Weight: 1.106kg
ISBN: 9780226100579
ISBN 10: 022610057X
Pages: 824
Publication Date: 24 September 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

D. Graham Burnett is professor of history and history of science at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities and directs graduate studies in the Program in History of Science. He is an editor at Cabinet magazine and the author of four books.

Reviews for The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century

"""A remarkable book, an astounding piece of research."" (David Blackburn, Guardian) ""By questioning the very nature of our scientific interest in the whale, Burnett has set the tone for a new century of discovery-and, one hopes, recovery."" (Nature) ""In other hands it might have yielded a story as dry as dust, but this historian has an eye for small, telling details, resulting in an intriguing book full of paradoxes and unlikely heroes."" (Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books) ""A very good book."" (Larry McMurtry, Harper's) ""A sweeping, important study of cetacean science and policy.... A gifted and often very funny writer, D. Graham Burnett bristles at the restrictions of academic rigor but does not abandon them.... His greatest service is to tell a story that helps us understand the present-day political obstacles to addressing key environmental questions."" (New York Times Book Review)"""