Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray - Hardcover

Simon, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151005869 ISBN 13: 9780151005864

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004

Synopsis

The modern world imagines that the invention of electricity was greeted with great enthusiasm. But in 1879, Americans reacted to the advent of electrification with suspicion and fear. Forty years after Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb, only 20 percent of American families had wired their homes. Meanwhile, electrotherapy emerged as a popular medical treatment for everything from depression to digestive problems. Why did Americans welcome electricity into their bodies even as they kept it from their homes? And what does their reaction to technological innovation then have to teach us about our reaction to it today?

In Dark Light, Linda Simon offers the first cultural history that delves into those questions, using newspapers, novels, and other primary sources. Tracing fifty years of technological transformation, from Morse's invention of the telegraph to Roentgen's discovery of X rays, she has created a revealing portrait of an anxious age.

About this title

Review:

"An utterly idiosyncratic romp, a chronicle not of gizmos and inventors but of their effects on the public imagination."

"Simon's fascinating story is resonant today."

"Readers drawn to technology's cultural history will be intrigued by Simon's eclectic work."

"Simon does a brilliant job here chronicling the early and sometimes dark days of electricity."

"Simon''s fascinating story is resonant today."

"Readers drawn to technology''s cultural history will be intrigued by Simon''s eclectic work."

PRAISE FOR DARK LIGHT
"An utterly idiosyncratic romp, a poetical humanist's inquiry, a chronicle not so much of gizmos and inventors but of their effects on the public imagination . . . Hypnotic."-NEWSDAY
PRAISE FOR DARK LIGHT
"An utterly idiosyncratic romp, a poetical humanist's inquiry, a chronicle not so much of gizmos and inventors but of their effects on the public imagination . . . Hypnotic."-NEWSDAY
PRAISE FOR DARK LIGHT
"An utterly idiosyncratic romp, a poetical humanist's inquiry, a chronicle not so much of gizmos and inventors but of their effects on the public imagination . . . Hypnotic."-NEWSDAY

From the Back Cover:

Praise for GENUINE REALITY: A Life of William James

"Compelling ..... James comes wonderfully alive. In Genuine Reality, you more than notice him; you become engaged in his struggles as if they were your own." -- The New York Times

"One of the distinctions of Linda Simon's well-written, well-paced biography is how much insight she gives us into James's family background. Reading her, one comes to understand just how much William had to contend with in his efforts to break free and go relatively sane. This well-crafted, comprehensive book is a real achievement." -- Washington Post Book World
|Praise for GENUINE REALITY: A Life of William James

"Compelling ..... James comes wonderfully alive. In Genuine Reality, you more than notice him; you become engaged in his struggles as if they were your own." -- The New York Times

"One of the distinctions of Linda Simon's well-written, well-paced biography is how much insight she gives us into James's family background. Reading her, one comes to understand just how much William had to contend with in his efforts to break free and go relatively sane. This well-crafted, comprehensive book is a real achievement." -- Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0151005869
• ISBN 13: 9780151005864
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 345