The Beginnings of Piezoelectricity, the first history of the subject, exhaustively examines how diverse influences led to the discovery of the phenomenon in 1880, and how they shaped subsequent research until the consolidation of an empirical and theoretical knowledge of the field circa 1895. Shaul Katzir’s historical account shows that this ‘mundane’ science was an intriguing intellectual and practical enterprise, which involved originality, surprises and controversies.