A review by thenovelbook
American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron
4.0
This book perfectly captured the thrill of seeing a total solar eclipse, and gave me some interesting background on the scientists who pinned all their hopes on what the 1878 eclipse would bring them.
In the end, it was probably a lot more background than I really wanted, for instance, on Thomas Edison, whose invention (to be tested at the time of the eclipse) turned out to be just really...unimportant.
I did find it interesting to read about the female astronomer Maria Mitchell, fighting for women to be recognized as equals in the field of science. Also the scientists who were just sure that there was another planet between Mercury and the sun, and who figured they could find it during the eclipse. (They named their postulated planet Vulcan. Hehe.) Or the poor guy, Cleveland Abbe, who wanted to watch the eclipse from the top of Pike's Peak but succumbed to altitude sickness, and had to watch it from his sickbed much further down the mountain.
Yes, those things were pretty interesting. But the greatest achievement of this book was to make me remember in vivid detail what it was like to see the total solar eclipse of this year, 2017. Most everyone in the U.S. had the opportunity to see it as a partial eclipse, but I will forever be grateful that I had the circumstances and relative proximity to go stand in the path of totality. Honestly, I still think about it pretty much every day and I shiver: that "WHAM" moment when the moon's shadow came for us with a sinking, racing darkness, and we could tear off our glasses and stare transfixed at an alien sky.
I marvel that such an experience will NEVER be able to be properly captured by a camera of any sort (it doesn't look like what it looks like in a photo). How many things are there that you can experience only with your own two eyes, and never, never, never replicate? It was, and I do not exaggerate, a spiritual experience. So, when this book describes how even professional men and women of science found themselves trembling and emotional as hour zero approached, or how one scientist reveled in the fact that he had no experiments to perform but could throw his whole heart into watching...yeah, it resonates with me. Or, when I heard (since this was an audiobook I listened to in my car) about poor Cleveland Abbe on his sickbed observing the lightbeams coming out from behind the moon at 90-degree angles, and thinking they were tricks of light but then realizing they weren't, and I banged on my steering wheel and cried, "That's WHAT I SAW!"
I loved the descriptions of the sky and the sun and the moon at the time of eclipse...a very dark warm blue (the mind reels at that combination, but it's accurate)...an ebony pupil surrounded by a pearly iris...
The book made me feel a kinship with those who watched a total solar eclipse nearly 150 years ago. It's a beautiful thing to realize that some experiences evoke feelings in the human heart that are universal and timeless. Observing a total solar eclipse is certainly one of those.
P.S. If you haven't seen a total solar eclipse, do it. It was one of the best days of my life.
In the end, it was probably a lot more background than I really wanted, for instance, on Thomas Edison, whose invention (to be tested at the time of the eclipse) turned out to be just really...unimportant.
I did find it interesting to read about the female astronomer Maria Mitchell, fighting for women to be recognized as equals in the field of science. Also the scientists who were just sure that there was another planet between Mercury and the sun, and who figured they could find it during the eclipse. (They named their postulated planet Vulcan. Hehe.) Or the poor guy, Cleveland Abbe, who wanted to watch the eclipse from the top of Pike's Peak but succumbed to altitude sickness, and had to watch it from his sickbed much further down the mountain.
Yes, those things were pretty interesting. But the greatest achievement of this book was to make me remember in vivid detail what it was like to see the total solar eclipse of this year, 2017. Most everyone in the U.S. had the opportunity to see it as a partial eclipse, but I will forever be grateful that I had the circumstances and relative proximity to go stand in the path of totality. Honestly, I still think about it pretty much every day and I shiver: that "WHAM" moment when the moon's shadow came for us with a sinking, racing darkness, and we could tear off our glasses and stare transfixed at an alien sky.
I marvel that such an experience will NEVER be able to be properly captured by a camera of any sort (it doesn't look like what it looks like in a photo). How many things are there that you can experience only with your own two eyes, and never, never, never replicate? It was, and I do not exaggerate, a spiritual experience. So, when this book describes how even professional men and women of science found themselves trembling and emotional as hour zero approached, or how one scientist reveled in the fact that he had no experiments to perform but could throw his whole heart into watching...yeah, it resonates with me. Or, when I heard (since this was an audiobook I listened to in my car) about poor Cleveland Abbe on his sickbed observing the lightbeams coming out from behind the moon at 90-degree angles, and thinking they were tricks of light but then realizing they weren't, and I banged on my steering wheel and cried, "That's WHAT I SAW!"
I loved the descriptions of the sky and the sun and the moon at the time of eclipse...a very dark warm blue (the mind reels at that combination, but it's accurate)...an ebony pupil surrounded by a pearly iris...
The book made me feel a kinship with those who watched a total solar eclipse nearly 150 years ago. It's a beautiful thing to realize that some experiences evoke feelings in the human heart that are universal and timeless. Observing a total solar eclipse is certainly one of those.
P.S. If you haven't seen a total solar eclipse, do it. It was one of the best days of my life.