Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time [Hardcover]

David Prerau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 2005

Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went to war with it, and more recently the United States fought an energy crisis with it. For several months every year, for better or worse, daylight savings time affects vast numbers of people throughout the world. And from Ben Franklin’s era to today, its story has been an intriguing and sometimes-bizarre amalgam of colorful personalities and serious technical issues, purported costs and perceived benefits, conflicts between interest groups and government policymakers. It impacts diverse and unexpected areas, including agricultural practices, street crime, the reporting of sports scores, traffic accidents, the inheritance rights of twins, and voter turnout. Illustrated with a popular look at science and history, Seize the Daylight presents an intriguing and surprisingly entertaining story of our attempt to regulate the sunlight hours.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why should the hours in a day be open to government interference? Who are politicians to dictate how clocks are set? In Preau's engrossing and highly readable history of Daylight Saving Time (DST), these questions are posed many times over by people dead-set against altering "God's time," forgetting (or unaware) that Standard Time was largely created by the railroad companies. Early-to-rise Benjamin Franklin wrote of the good that could come of tinkering with the clock hours, but Englishman William Willett was the first to work out the logistics in his pamphlet, The Waste of Daylight, and lobby for DST in 1907. He died before anything came of his proposal, and it took the economic shock of WWI to get it adopted-and then only temporarily in most countries. Prerau writes knowledgeably about DST, following its trail with a single-minded focus that allows him to untangle the "clock chaos" it sometimes caused in places like Minneapolis and St. Paul, which in 1965 clashed over when to spring forward. Poems and editorial cartoons scattered throughout demonstrate just how fierce and widespread the debate raged. Prerau has compiled what seems to be every intriguing tidbit related to DST (and some that are less interesting, like the full texts of DST ordinances). Uncontroversial as it may seem to some, for others it was a matter of life and death, and Prerau handles the various arguments with admirable skill and evenhandedness, making this an excellent read for anyone curious about this peculiar slice of history.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this rewarding excursion into the curious history of daylight saving time (DST), Prerau discovers that it has been at the crossroads of politics and war. He recounts that DST first occurred to an Englishman who on his morning horse rides observed that Londoners were still abed, a lethargy he found reprehensible. The affronted William Willett championed DST in a 1907 pamphlet entitled "The Waste of Daylight," setting the original argument that touched off decades of debates on DST in British and American legislatures. These civic battles ballast Prerau's narrative. However, real battles are what enshrined DST in daily life. Patriotic appeals in World Wars I and II swelled the pro-DST forces (primarily urbanites and railroad companies), while in peacetime, anti-DST voices (primarily rural dwellers) reasserted themselves, such that observance of DST in America became a patchwork of local preferences. Noting the congressional acts (as recently as 1986) that eventually sorted out America's timekeeping confusion, Prerau's account is well researched and wryly presented. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (January 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256559
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256557
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,285,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A grudging five stars, August 4, 2005

By 

D. S. Bornus (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (Hardcover)

This is a very well-written book that thoroughly details the history behind timekeeping, as society evolved from each city observing local "sun time" (high noon = sun at highest point in the sky) and the increasing need for synchronization brought on by the industrial revolution and advancing technology such as railroads and telegraphs. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin and William Willett, various arguments are advanced for the idea of moving the clock forward in the summertime in order to cause society to be more active during morning daylight, in order to reduce the need for artificial lighting. This practice is haphazardly observed by various countries until WWI and WWII illustrate the practical utility of the idea. In the US, daylight saving time (DST) is haphazardly implemented, until legislation eventually standardizes the observance in the 1960's.

The reason that I give a "grudging" five stars is that I still personally disagree with DST. Biological circadian rythms do not easily go backward, and I believe that one day research will describe the deleterious effects (sleepy drivers, morning heart attacks, reduced productivity in schools and workplaces, etc.) that can be directly traced to disrupted biological rythms that take weeks or months to recover from the artificially disrupted schedule. These effects, when fully identified, may more than fully counteract any marginal beneficial economic advantage from energy conservation. If DST is such a good idea let's move the time zones one hour forward and then leave them there rather than shift back and forth twice a year. This book does not even address the issue of circadiam rhythyms, except for a one-sentence mention on the second to last page. A full evaluation of DST must include this important factor, as anyone who drags out of bed for weeks after "spring forward" day, sipping cup after cup of coffee just to awaken, can personally attest.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The better book of two that just came out., May 2, 2005

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (Hardcover)

Just days apart, two books came out on the same subject. This book competes with Michael Downing's "Spring Forward" and, in my opinion, wins the competition.

For one thing, the background history of timekeeping goes back further in Prerau's book than in Downing's. And it is placed in a more logical place in the book. Additionally, this book is, in my opinion, better written, reading in a way that holds my interest better. Prerau also uses maps and illustrations intelligently.

In addition, Downing seems not to have thoroughly proofread his book, occasionally writing "east" instead of "west" and "latitude" instead of "longitude."

For all these reasons, although both books pretty much cover the same material, unless you have a great desire to have both books in your library, this one is the one to buy.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Detailed Review of an Interesting Subject, August 12, 2005

By 

G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (Hardcover)

I never realized that Daylight Saving Time (DST) had such a controversial and turbulent history. I believe that the author has done an excellent job in detailing DST's evolution, often in excruciating detail, right up to the current, yet still fluctuating, situation. The writing is clear and engaging making the book very easy to read. The book also contains many caricatures that were published over the years clearly expressing people's views on this most contentious issue. I highly recommended this book to anyone, especially those interested in recent history. The fact that this subject has recently made the news makes this book very timely.