{"product_id":"capturing-kahanamoku-how-a-surfing-legend-and-a-scientific-obsession-redefined-race-and-culture-hardcover","title":"Capturing Kahanamoku: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Rossi\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A haunting, quietly devastating excavation of a story we should all know but don't: how a surfing legend became the target of eugenic obsession... Gorgeously written and brilliantly researched, this book is both a warning and a wonder.\" -- Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Aviator and the Showman\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"[A] strange and captivating account... Rossi excels at exposing the bunk pseudoscience at the heart of eugenicists' mystical fascination with race... readers will find this a fascinating look at the painful intersection of Hawaiian and sports history with an ignominious branch of science.\" - \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fascinating untold story of one scientist's pursuit of a legendary surfer in his quest to define human nature, written with the compelling drama and narrative insight of \u003cem\u003eWhy Fish Don't Exist\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Lost City of Z. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeep in the archives of New York's American Museum of Natural History sits a wardrobe filled with fifty plaster casts of human heads a century old. How they came to be is the story of one of the most consequential, and yet least-known, encounters in the history of science. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1920, the museum's director, Henry Fairfield Osborn, traveled to Hawaii on an anthropological research trip. While there, he took a surfing lesson with Duke Kahanamoku, the famous surf-rider and budding movie star. For Osborn, a fervent eugenicist, the tall, muscular Kahanamoku embodied the \"pure racial type\" he was desperate to understand and, more significantly, preserve, in the human race.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUpon his return to New York, Osborn's fixation grew. He dispatched young scientist Louis Sullivan to Honolulu to measure, photograph, and cast in plaster Kahanamoku and other Hawaiian people. The study touched off a series of events that forever changed how we think about race, culture, science, and the essence of humanity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eCapturing Kahanamoku\u003c\/em\u003e, historian Michael Rossi draws on archival research and firsthand interviews to weave together a truly fascinating cultural history that is an absorbing account of obsession, a cautionary tale about the subjectivity of science, a warning of the pernicious and lasting impact of eugenics, a meditation on humanity, and the story of a man whose personhood shunned classification.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA heady blend of \u003cem\u003eBarbarian Days\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, \u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eCapturing Kahanamoku\u003c\/em\u003e is a twentieth-century saga with ever-clearer implications for our times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCapturing Kahanamoku\u003c\/em\u003e includes 16-20 black-and-white photos throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 352\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.36 x 9.61 x 5.82 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 21, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51978324148525,"sku":"9780063279971","price":30.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/7BQ2p81SU9780063279971.webp?v=1775801627","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/capturing-kahanamoku-how-a-surfing-legend-and-a-scientific-obsession-redefined-race-and-culture-hardcover","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}