Awards

• Short-listed for PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 2018

Overview

In the summer of 1878 three ruthless and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another fought to prove that science was not an anathema to femininity. And a young, megalomaniacal inventor sought to test his bona fides and light the world through his revelations. David Baron brings to life these three competitors—James Craig Watson, Maria Mitchell and Thomas Edison—re-creating the jockeying of nineteenth-century astronomy. With accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, the last days of the Wild West come alive. A magnificent portrayal of America's dawn as a superpower, American Eclipse depicts a nation looking to the skies to reveal its ambition and expose its genius.

Full Product Details

9781631490163

Table of Contents

Reviews

David Baron contracted an incurable case of 'umbraphilia' twenty years ago in Aruba. Fortunately for readers, Baron's fever stokes his account of the first great American eclipse, in 1878, while priming us for the next one-and the next, and the next. -- Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe Total eclipses of the Sun are among the most wondrous spectacles in the heavens. With American Eclipse, David Baron beautifully captures the awe, the magic, and the mystery of one particular eclipse, an event in 1878 that spurred on America to embrace the sciences. A superb contribution to the history of astronomy. -- Marcia Bartusiak, author of The Day We Found the Universe, Black Hole, and Einstein's Unfinished Symphony In this delightfully readable work of science history, we see an ardent young republic testing its intellectual prowess on the world stage. Baron has chosen just the right moment, and peopled it with just the right characters. This fascinating portrait of the Gilded Age is suffused with the peculiar magic and sense of awe that have always attended eclipses, those fraught few minutes when day becomes night, times stands still-and anything seems possible. -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of Blood and Thunder and In the Kingdom of Ice A suspenseful and dramatic account of the rival scientific expeditions that came to the American West to view and study this rare phenomenon... Baron enables us to understand what drew them to the eclipse and what this episode tells us about the changing role of science in American culture. -- Paul Israel, author of Edison: A Life of Invention A wonderful book, bringing lessons from the past to the present. In exceptionally clear and interesting prose, Baron brings 19th-century personalities to life, showing how men and, unusually, an astronomy-professor woman of that time observed the total solar eclipse of 1878. His book carries across the spirit of eclipse watching that millions of Americans can gain by observing the 2017 total eclipse. -- Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College Enthralling ... A marvelous dramatic narrative of an important and revealing episode in late-nineteenth-century American science. It lucidly melds science, ambition, policy, technology, the interplay of personality and practice, and the immediacy of experience. The book is marked by wonderful, eye-opening surprises, notably Edison's enthusiasm for and participation in the observation of the eclipse and independent expedition of Maria Mitchell and her crew in the face of their exclusion from the effort. -- Daniel Kevles, author of The Physicists

David Baron contracted an incurable case of 'umbraphilia' twenty years ago in Aruba. Fortunately for readers, Baron's fever stokes his account of the first great American eclipse, in 1878, while priming us for the next one-and the next, and the next. -- Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe David Baron contracted an incurable case of 'umbraphilia' twenty years ago in Aruba. Fortunately for readers, Baron's fever stokes his account of the first great American eclipse, in 1878, while priming us for the next one-and the next, and the next. -- Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe Total eclipses of the Sun are among the most wondrous spectacles in the heavens. With American Eclipse, David Baron beautifully captures the awe, the magic, and the mystery of one particular eclipse, an event in 1878 that spurred on America to embrace the sciences. A superb contribution to the history of astronomy. -- Marcia Bartusiak, author of The Day We Found the Universe, Black Hole, and Einstein's Unfinished Symphony Total eclipses of the Sun are among the most wondrous spectacles in the heavens. With American Eclipse, David Baron beautifully captures the awe, the magic, and the mystery of one particular eclipse, an event in 1878 that spurred on America to embrace the sciences. A superb contribution to the history of astronomy. -- Marcia Bartusiak, author of The Day We Found the Universe, Black Hole, and Einstein's Unfinished Symphony In this delightfully readable work of science history, we see an ardent young republic testing its intellectual prowess on the world stage. Baron has chosen just the right moment, and peopled it with just the right characters. This fascinating portrait of the Gilded Age is suffused with the peculiar magic and sense of awe that have always attended eclipses, those fraught few minutes when day becomes night, times stands still-and anything seems possible. -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of Blood and Thunder and In the Kingdom of Ice In this delightfully readable work of science history, we see an ardent young republic testing its intellectual prowess on the world stage. Baron has chosen just the right moment, and peopled it with just the right characters. This fascinating portrait of the Gilded Age is suffused with the peculiar magic and sense of awe that have always attended eclipses, those fraught few minutes when day becomes night, time stands still-and anything seems possible. -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of Blood and Thunder and In the Kingdom of Ice A suspenseful and dramatic account of the rival scientific expeditions that came to the American West to view and study this rare phenomenon... Baron enables us to understand what drew them to the eclipse and what this episode tells us about the changing role of science in American culture. -- Paul Israel, author of Edison: A Life of Invention A suspenseful and dramatic account of the rival scientific expeditions that came to the American West to view and study this rare phenomenon... Baron enables us to understand what drew them to the eclipse and what this episode tells us about the changing role of science in American culture. -- Paul Israel, author of Edison: A Life of Invention A wonderful book, bringing lessons from the past to the present. In exceptionally clear and interesting prose, Baron brings 19th-century personalities to life, showing how men and, unusually, an astronomy-professor woman of that time observed the total solar eclipse of 1878. His book carries across the spirit of eclipse watching that millions of Americans can gain by observing the 2017 total eclipse. -- Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College A wonderful book, bringing lessons from the past to the present. In exceptionally clear and interesting prose, Baron brings 19th-century personalities to life, showing how men and, unusually, an astronomy-professor woman of that time observed the total solar eclipse of 1878. His book carries across the spirit of eclipse watching that millions of Americans can gain by observing the 2017 total eclipse. -- Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College Enthralling ... A marvelous dramatic narrative of an important and revealing episode in late-nineteenth-century American science. It lucidly melds science, ambition, policy, technology, the interplay of personality and practice, and the immediacy of experience. The book is marked by wonderful, eye-opening surprises, notably Edison's enthusiasm for and participation in the observation of the eclipse and independent expedition of Maria Mitchell and her crew in the face of their exclusion from the effort. -- Daniel Kevles, author of The Physicists Enthralling ... A marvelous dramatic narrative of an important and revealing episode in late-nineteenth-century American science. It lucidly melds science, ambition, policy, technology, the interplay of personality and practice, and the immediacy of experience. The book is marked by wonderful, eye-opening surprises, notably Edison's enthusiasm for and participation in the observation of the eclipse and independent expedition of Maria Mitchell and her crew in the face of their exclusion from the effort. -- Daniel Kevles, author of The Physicists

David Baron contracted an incurable case of umbraphilia twenty years ago in Aruba. Fortunately for readers, Baron's fever stokes his account of the first great American eclipse, in 1878, while priming us for the next one-and the next, and the next. -- Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe David Baron beautifully captures the awe, the magic, and the mystery of one particular eclipse, an event in 1878 that spurred on America to embrace the sciences. A superb contribution to the history of astronomy. -- Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein's Unfinished Symphony This fascinating portrait of the Gilded Age is suffused with the peculiar magic and sense of awe that have always attended eclipses, those fraught few minutes when day becomes night, time stands still-and anything seems possible. -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of Blood and Thunder A suspenseful and dramatic account of the rival scientific expeditions that came to the American West to view and study this rare phenomenon...Baron enables us to understand what drew them to the eclipse and what this episode tells us about the changing role of science in American culture. -- Paul Israel, author of Edison: A Life of Invention A wonderful book, bringing lessons from the past to the present. In exceptionally clear and interesting prose, Baron brings nineteenth-century personalities to life, showing how men and, unusually, a female astronomy professor of that time observed the total solar eclipse of 1878. -- Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College Lucidly melds science, ambition, policy, technology, the interplay of personality and practice, and the immediacy of experience. The book is marked by wonderful, eye-opening surprises, notably Edison's enthusiasm for and participation in the observation of the eclipse and the independent expedition of Maria Mitchell and her crew in the face of their exclusion from the effort. -- Daniel Kevles, author of The Physicists Brilliantly researched and beautifully crafted, American Eclipse conveys historical discoveries and scientific obsessions with the verve and excitement of a work of fiction. David Baron's vivid prose captures the wonder of an era in which modern astronomy was just beginning to reveal our connection to vast universe beyond our own small world. -- John Pipkin, author of The Blind Astronomer's Daughter

American Eclipse is an incredibly well written work of non-fiction. It is clearly the result of considerable research and careful thought. And it tells a great story. -- Book of the Month - BBC Sky at Night Baron's stories are good ones, well told. -- Nature

Author Information

David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Beast in the Garden and American Eclipse. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. David recently served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

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