State, Science and the Skies: Governmentalities of the British Atmosphere

“Mark Whitehead’s 2009 book State, Science and the Skies constitutes a compelling and important contribution to the RGS–IBG Book Series . . . This fascinating book is part of an increasing literature on a much neglected area of study: the role and importance of the atmosphere in our lives (e.g. Jankovic, 2000; Latour, 2003; Strauss and Orlove, 2003; Kessel, 2006; Thornes, 2008) . . . State, Science and the Skies should provide us with an important guide to the geographies of the atmosphere. It is especially helpful in order to cultivate some sense of relief to Sloterdijk’s (2009) emphasis on the air as a means of administering death through environmental means.”  (Geoform, 1 September 2012)

State, Science and the Skies is a carefully researched and politically important work. Creatively developing Foucault's work on governmentality, it shows the complex interrelations of technology, policy and practice. Taking the atmosphere as an object of government, it insists on the essential vertical dimension of the geographies of the modern state.
— Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Geography, Durham University

State, Science and the Skies is a superbly crafted synthesis of the making of a modern climatological state. Whitehead follows the expert and the state in their creation of atmospheric government and its aerial responsibilities. Blending a robust historical narrative with thought-provoking analyses of atmospheric lives of boiler attendants, employers, government inspectors and housewives, Whitehead provides an important framework for thinking about the current concerns surrounding climate change and air pollution. State, Science and the Skies is bound to become a major reference in all future discussions about the scientific and political constructions of environmental life in modern Britain and beyond.
— Vladimir Jankovic, Lecturer, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine University of Manchester