Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time - Hardcover

Prerau, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560256559 ISBN 13: 9781560256557

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005

Synopsis

Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went to war with it, and more recently the United States fought an energy crisis with it. For several months every year, for better or worse, daylight savings time affects vast numbers of people throughout the world. And from Ben Franklin’s era to today, its story has been an intriguing and sometimes-bizarre amalgam of colorful personalities and serious technical issues, purported costs and perceived benefits, conflicts between interest groups and government policymakers. It impacts diverse and unexpected areas, including agricultural practices, street crime, the reporting of sports scores, traffic accidents, the inheritance rights of twins, and voter turnout. Illustrated with a popular look at science and history, Seize the Daylight presents an intriguing and surprisingly entertaining story of our attempt to regulate the sunlight hours.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"A delightfully detailed look at a familiar but underappreciated subject. Who knew it required two centuries, a couple of world wars, and a Supreme Court decision to make daylight saving time a reality? After reading David Prerau’s enjoyable and revealing account, you’ll hope we never ‘fall back’ to the dark days before daylight saving time again."

—GERALD HELFERICH, author of Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey That Changed the Way We See the World

About the Author:

David Prerau holds a Ph.D. from MIT and has coauthored three U.S. government reports to Congress on the effects of daylight saving time. He works as a senior knowledge engineer and specializes in artificial intelligence. He lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1560256559
• ISBN 13: 9781560256557
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272