{"product_id":"the-sounding-of-the-whale-science-and-cetaceans-in-the-twentieth-century-9780226081304","title":"The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the Bibles Canst thou raise leviathan with a hook? to Captain Ahabs From Hells 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 researchand 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665859600437,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226081303","price":69.9,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226081304.jpg?v=1782410782","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-sounding-of-the-whale-science-and-cetaceans-in-the-twentieth-century-9780226081304","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}