American Eclipse

Starred review from April 17, 2017
Science journalist Baron (The Beast in the Garden) shares a timely tale of science and suspense in this story of rival Gilded Age astronomers contending with everything from cloudy skies to train robbers to observe the historic total solar eclipse of July 29, 1878. American scientists got little respect from their European counterparts in the 19th century, so when astronomers predicted an eclipse with a path of totality visible across much of the American West, reputation-bolstering plans to observe the spectacle were quickly hatched at universities across the nation. Baron focuses on three vibrant personalities: astronomy professor James Craig Watson, a planet hunter with a somewhat shady reputation; groundbreaking Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell, who was determined to prove that women were as capable of great scientific work as any man; and ambitious inventor Thomas Edison, who’d built a scientific instrument that he hoped would prove he was more than a mere tinkerer. Hopping between the three narratives, Baron skillfully builds tension, giving readers a vivid sense of the excitement, hard work, and high stakes in play. With the first total solar eclipse to cross the U.S. in 99 years set to occur in late August 2017, this engrossing story makes an entertaining and informative teaser.

April 15, 2017
The captivating story of a 19th-century solar eclipse.In this compelling social and scientific history, former NPR science correspondent Baron (The Beast in the Garden, 2003) begins with his own unexpectedly transformative experience witnessing a total solar eclipse for the first time. "For three glorious minutes," he writes, "I felt transported to another planet, indeed to a higher plane of reality, as my consciousness departed the earth and I gaped at an alien sky." Such a response is not atypical: "For millennia, total solar eclipses have awed, frightened, and inspired." Their occurrence, however, is rare, "passing any given point on earth about once every four hundred years." By 1878, astronomers accurately predicted that a total solar eclipse would be observable in the western United States, and they charted its likely path. Expeditions set out to witness the event in Wyoming and Colorado, including one led by Maria Mitchell, a female professor of astronomy from the women's college Vassar. Mitchell, writes Baron, "saw it as her role not only to teach female students but...to create the kind of supportive environment for intelligent women so lacking in the outside world." Another notable figure who traveled west to see the eclipse was Thomas Edison, who had invented an instrument that would hopefully measure differences in solar heat during and after the eclipse. Although the device was not as accurate as he had hoped, it anticipated the development of infrared telescopes. As Baron capably and enthusiastically shows, the solar eclipse of 1878 proved to be an important moment in the emergence of American science; another outcome was the creation of the first national weather service. Would-be eclipse watchers used the telegraph to track weather systems in order to determine the best time and place for their sightings. Two years later, President Ulysses Grant signed legislation creating the weather service, "to be operated by the Army Signal Corps." A timely, energetic combination of social and scientific history in anticipation of the total solar eclipse predicted for Aug. 21, 2017.

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Starred review from April 15, 2017
Much was at stake when the American West experienced a total solar eclipse in 1878, as that rare event came while the nation was striving to shed its reputation as a scientific backwater. American Eclipse vividly traces the journeys of three larger-than-life figures intent on making their mark during less than three minutes on that gusty July day. One of them was a young inventor named Thomas Alva Edison. Although showered (at times besieged) with attention after his recent invention of the phonograph, he was still striving to prove his scientific ability. He hoped to use the eclipse to test a new invention, designed to measure tiny increments of heat from stars to determine their distance from Earth. Meanwhile, the redoubtable astronomy professor Maria Mitchell launched an all-female eclipse expedition as part of her career-long quest to prove women had a place in the sciences. And James Craig Watson, a Michigan astronomer engaged in a nineteenth-century space race with a rival to discover the most asteroids, set out to prove the existence of a planet between Mercury and the sun. With a wealth of choice details about their lives, Baron brilliantly presents these three pioneers, their ambitions, and their struggles. As America again prepares to experience solar totality, Baron transports us to a remarkable moment that brought a nation together to witness the wonders of the heavens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2017

Just in time for this summer's eclipse, former NPR science journalist Baron writes about a Gilded Age solar eclipse, the key scientists who went West to watch the sun vanish, and the consequences for American science.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

Instead of looking at the broader phenomenon of eclipses in general, this title focuses on a single eclipse, that of 1878. Baron (The Beast in the Garden) highlights the experiences of three observers of that event: Maria Mitchell, James Craig Watson, and Thomas Edison. Other individuals and scientific details are woven into the narrative as it moves the central figures toward the day of the eclipse. Throughout, the book depicts the United States as a young country striving to achieve parity with Europe on the intellectual stage. Many American astronomers saw the 1878 eclipse as a chance to demonstrate to the world what America could do for science. Watson was hoping to discover a new planet to win recognition for this country and himself. Mitchell led an all-female expedition to Colorado to show that women could contribute, too. And although Edison's experiments during the eclipse had no lasting impact on history or astronomy, Baron tells a compelling tale about the inventor. All of these figures also appear in John Dvorak's Mask of the Sun but only briefly. VERDICT Best for readers who are getting their technical details elsewhere yet enjoy a good story about science. [Prepub Alert, 1/9/17.]--Cate Hirschbiel, Iwasaki Lib., Emerson Coll., Boston

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.