02518cam a2200325 i 4500 295020275 TxAuBib 20170616120000.0 170303s2017||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2017009679 9781631490163 1631490168 (OCoLC)959875389 TxAuBib rda Baron, David. American eclipse : a nation's epic race to catch the shadow of the moon and win the glory of the world / David Baron. First edition. New York, N.Y. : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2017] xii, 330 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, color chart ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-308) and index. Prologue: Shall the sun be darkened -- Part one: 1876. Reign of shoddy -- Professor of quadruplicity -- Nemesis -- "Petticoat parliament" -- Part two: 1878. Politics and moonshine -- The wizard in Washington -- Sic transit -- "Good woman that she are" -- Show business -- Part three: 1878. Among the tribes of uncivilization -- Queen city -- Nature's editor -- Old probabilities -- Part four: 1878. Favored mortals -- First contact -- Totality -- American genius -- Part five: 1878-1931. Ghosts -- Shadow and light -- Epilogue: Tendrils of history. In vibrant historical detail, American Eclipse animates the fierce jockeying that came to dominate late nineteenth-century American astronomy, revealing the challenges faced by three of the most determined eclipse chasers who participated in this adventure. James Craig Watson, in his day a renowned asteroid hunter; Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell, who fought to demonstrate that science and higher learning were not anathema to femininity; and Thomas Edison, a young inventor and irrepressible showman. With vivid accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, Baron's page-turning drama not only brings to life the mythologized age of the Wild West in a totally unexpected way but forever memorializes an historic eclipse that would come to symbolize American science in its ascendance.-- Adapted from book jacket. 20170616. Science United States History 19th century. Eclipses. Astronomy History.