Synopses & Reviews
A revelatory cultural history of electricity's introduction in the last half of the 19th century -- and our surprisingly strong resistance to itThe 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 a vivid 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.
CITATION: "Readers drawn to technology's cultural history will be intrigued by Simon's eclectic work."(Booklist)
CITATION: "Simon does a brilliant job here chronicling the early and sometimes dark days of electricity." (San Diego Union Tribune)
CITATION: "An utterly idiosyncratic romp, a chronicle not of gizmos and inventors but of their effects on the public imagination."(Newsday)
CITATION: "Simon's fascinating story is resonant today."(Philadelphia Inquirer)
Review
"Linda Simon's social history of electricity is not for tech nerds. No dry scientific tome destined for a section of the library frequented by readers unlikely to find dates, it is in fact an utterly idiosyncratic romp, a poetical humanist's inquiry..." Newsday
Review
"Simon...does a brilliant job here chronicling the early and sometimes dark days of electricity....But even more entertaining are the portions of the book that recount electric moments of achievement and disaster." San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"New technologies are often met with fear, suspicion, and superstition of medieval proportions. The benefits of scientific invention, even those now taken for granted in our everyday lives, were once passionately debated. This is the story of Dark Light, Linda Simon's fascinating history of the advent of electrification....[It] offers a compelling picture of a society dealing with immense technological change, and it reveals how attitudes toward medicine and science evolve or fade away." Anna Godberson, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Synopsis
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
Synopsis
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
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 the Author
LINDA SIMON is a professor of English at Skidmore College. She is the author of four biographies, including Genuine Reality:A Life of Henry James and The Biography of Alice B.Toklas. She lives in Saratoga Springs, NewYork.
Table of Contents
Introduction PART I: Wonders
Working Great Mischief
Beneficence
Wilderness of Wires
Nerve Juice
Sparks
PART II: Cravings of the Heart
The Inconstant Battery
Haunted Brains
The Inscrutable Something
PART III: Electrostrikes
Live Wires
Magical Keys
Dark Light
Appreciation
Notes
Bibliography
Index