The story of humanity's interest in space weather may go back to prehistoric times when people at high latitudes noticed the northern lights. Interest became more acute after the development of electrical technologies such as the telegraph, and certainly during World War II when shortwave radio communication came into practical use. Solar observing actually began to be supported by the military, with the observatory at Climax, Colorado being established to monitor the Sun during the war. With the advent of satellites and manned space travel to the Moon, space weather became a seriously funded endeavor both for basic research and forecasting. In the book, Sentinels of the Sun: Forecasting Space Weather, Barbara Poppe does an excellent job of telling this story for the nonprofessional. Moreover, as a professional who has studied space weather since before humans landed on the Moon, I found the book to be a very enjoyable read.