{"product_id":"american-eclipse-a-nations-epic-race-to-catch-the-shadow-of-the-moon-and-win-the-glory-of-the-world-9781631490163","title":"American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn a scorching July afternoon in 1878, at the dawn of the Gilded Age, the moon's shadow descended on the American West, darkening skies from Montana Territory to Texas. This rare celestial event--a total solar eclipse--offered a priceless opportunity to solve some of the solar system's most enduring riddles, and it prompted a clutch of enterprising scientists to brave the wild frontier in a grueling race to the Rocky Mountains. Acclaimed science journalist David Baron, long fascinated by eclipses, re-creates this epic tale of ambition, failure, and glory in a narrative that reveals as much about the historical trajectory of a striving young nation as it does about those scant three minutes when the blue sky blackened and stars appeared in mid-afternoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn vibrant historical detail, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Eclipse\u003c\/em\u003e animates the fierce jockeying that came to dominate late nineteenth-century American astronomy, bringing to life the challenges faced by three of the most determined eclipse chasers who participated in this adventure. James Craig Watson, virtually forgotten in the twenty-first century, was in his day a renowned asteroid hunter who fantasized about becoming a Gilded Age Galileo. Hauling a telescope, a star chart, and his long-suffering wife out west, Watson believed that he would discover Vulcan, a hypothesized \"intra-Mercurial\" planet hidden in the sun's brilliance. No less determined was Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell, who--in an era when women's education came under fierce attack--fought to demonstrate that science and higher learning were not anathema to femininity. Despite obstacles erected by the male-dominated astronomical community, an indifferent government, and careless porters, Mitchell courageously charged west with a contingent of \u003cem\u003efemale\u003c\/em\u003e students intent on observing the transcendent phenomenon for themselves. Finally, Thomas Edison--a young inventor and irrepressible showman--braved the wilderness to prove himself to the scientific community. Armed with his newest invention, the tasimeter, and pursued at each stop by throngs of reporters, Edison sought to leverage the eclipse to cement his place in history. What he learned on the frontier, in fact, would help him illuminate the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith memorable accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, David Baron's page-turning drama refracts nineteenth-century science through the mythologized age of the Wild West, revealing a history no less fierce and fantastical.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Liveright Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/06\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781631490163\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2017 pg. 50\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2017 pg. 136\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/17\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2017 pg. 4\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/09\/2017\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"David Baron","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43180657246389,"sku":"9781631490163","price":23.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_5141e5a5-f4da-4f4c-a90c-2633fb105298.jpg?v=1697517522","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/american-eclipse-a-nations-epic-race-to-catch-the-shadow-of-the-moon-and-win-the-glory-of-the-world-9781631490163","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}