Paper short abstract:

Waves rise, flow, roll, break. They are, by nature, moving forces, never static. What challenges does this pose to environmental historians (and others)? This paper focuses on a case study of Hawaii in the modern era to think through just a few of the many ways in which waves and humans interact.

Paper long abstract:

Waves have resisted historical study. They are, by nature, transient and disappearing: one second forming, the next, breaking. History has focused, instead, on the things they have carried and flows they have created: people, trade, empires, ideas, industries.

But waves assert themselves in our lives, and in our pasts, with a force to be reckoned with. They shape our shorelines, animate our sea views, oxygenate our marine environments and expunge unlimited energy. And they continue to test our wits and courage, and endanger lives, by their power.

This paper focuses on a case study of Hawaii in the modern era to think through just a few of the many ways in which waves and humans interact. It will focus particularly on the rise of the wave as a bearer of heritage; as a recreational or sporting arena; and an as a site of resistance to social and political change, as seen in a grassroots movement on the islands to 'Save Our Waves'.

Grounded in archival research, the paper engages with ideas from the Blue Humanities of waves as historical subjects, and builds on the conceptual groundwork (to use a land-based metaphor) of environmental history. It explores the ways in which moving environmental forces leave tangible traces on more fixed ways of being and thinking. How might engagement with motion, mobility and transience in historical research deepen our understanding of human-environment relationships? And how, as historians, can we best capture the transient nature of our maritime subjects?