Abstract

This Focus section introductory essay makes a case for new histories of volcano science. While studies of individual volcanoes are pervasive and well known, the twentieth-century history of volcanology remains largely written by practitioners. The essays in this focus section—written by scholars with specialisms in the history of science, the environment, culture, agriculture, and geography—draw out the wider significance of volcano science in a range of regions including Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, and Antarctica. The essays highlight the significance of imperial and colonial contestation in the formation of volcano science and the fraught relationship between Western, Indigenous, and local forms of volcano knowledge. The essays also point to the importance of volcano science to new conceptions of earthly evolution and history. The introduction concludes with reflections on potential new research directions in the historiography of volcano science.