Like the metre, the minute, or the meridian that runs through Greenwich, England, sea level is best thought of as a social and historical construct, the result of an inherently arbitrary decision taken by generations of people doing their best to make sense of a strange and chaotic world. Von Hardenbergs history is a story not of the way sea level has changed over time but, rather, of the ways in which humans have understood, and made use of, sea level as a concept, a marker of where we stand in the world. * New Yorker * Sea Level is a powerful reminder that examining the history of scientific values can shed light on both the structure of modern science and its impact on the near future. This book is concise, well written, and informative, and it is a strong example of what ocean history has to offer. * Science * Hardenbergs history illustrates how values of the zero-level reference plane varied from country to country, depending not only on varying geography but also on how national priorities for the allocation of research resources affected the choice and extent of the data sets obtained. * Natural History * As this readable and thoughtful book explains, making sense of sea level was a matter of measurement. Von Hardenberg traces the ways in which philosophers, map-makers and bureaucrats from the eighteenth century onwards grappled with the problems of measuring elevation. . . . This is the story of how sea level was transformed from a local to a universal reference. * Times Literary Supplement * Those whose interests encompass one or more of the Earth sciences, as well as those who study the history of scienceparticularly its applications and intersections with politics and commerceshould add this new book to their reading list, as should all who would simply like to acquire a better understanding and informed perspective on the terminology, techniques, and overall understanding of one of the more commonly referenced measurement values cited in the present-day discussions and debates about climate change. * The Well-Read Naturalist * Brilliant . . . all adults should read and understand Sea Level. Highly recommended. * Choice * Sea level, Hardenberg convincingly demonstrates, is not and never has been a natural or physical plane or index; instead, it is a construct, a product of technically and culturally determined assumptions, frequently involving political and imperial motivations. . . . As the engagement with climate change in the final chapters suggests, Sea Level will be of interest to scholars of the environment and of disaster studies, but its tracing of changing scientific ideas definitely deserves attention from historians of science, especially historians of geology and ocean sciences, and of metrology and related technologies, particularly in imperial contexts. The general reader (or student) may want to keep a notebook handy to track the cast of characters, but the books readable prose and enlightening connections will make it worth their while to do so. * British Journal for the History of Science * By combining scientific, historical, and political analyses, Sea Level provides a comprehensive understanding of sea-level rise as both a physical phenomenon and a sociopolitical issue. It challenges readers to think beyond scientific data and to recognize the cultural, historical, and political dimensions of sea-level rise, encouraging a more holistic approach to understanding and addressing the climate crisis. * Environmental History * Sea Level is a delightfully compacted study, refreshingly free of the kind of doomsaying that usually accompanies this subject. And the sotto voce warning about hobbling science with the politics of the moment is unfortunately pointed. * Open Letters Review * An astute analysis of the idea of mean sea level that links multiple stories and centuries, from the Enlightenment to the present. * H-Oceans * Von Hardenbergs book is a perfect illustration of the complexity of the historical interplay with oceanography providing significant contributions to the evolution of land mapping and ocean charting, the significance of which may not even be known by numerous research scientists. * Ocean Yearbook * "Historian Wilko Graf von Hardenberg examines how 'sea level' is a baseline thats often taken as a certainty when it is actually 'far from a natural index a product of technically and culturally determined assumptions'. From examining how it was produced, he goes on to chart how sea level was then re-imagined as an exemplar of change brought about by anthropogenic warming." * Dialogue Earth * Traversing major debates within the history of science, Hardenberg offers his readers an interdisciplinary account of the abstraction and mathematization of the global coastlines. He tells this story from a unique vantage point located in the present climate politics. Thoroughly researched, highly original, and robustly argued, this book is a pleasure to read. -- Debjani Bhattacharyya, author of Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta
