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The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
Counterpoint
February 2009
On Sale: February 17, 2009
240 pages ISBN: 1582434956 EAN: 9781582434957 Paperback
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Non-Fiction
Michael Downing is obsessed with Daylight Saving, the loopy
idea that became the most persistent political controversy
in American history. Almost one hundred years after
Congressmen and lawmakers in every state first debated,
ridiculed, and then passionately embraced the possibility of
saving an hour of daylight, no one can say for sure why we
are required by law to change our clocks twice a year. Who
first proposed the scheme? The most authoritative sources
agree it was a Pittsburgh industrialist, Woodrow Wilson, a
man on a horse in London, a Manhattan socialite, Benjamin
Franklin, one of the Caesars, or the anonymous makers of
ancient Chinese and Japanese water clocks. Spring Forward is a portrait of public policy in the 20th
century, a perennially boiling cauldron of unsubstantiated
science, profiteering masked as piety, and mysteriously
shifting time-zone boundaries. It is a true-to-life social
comedy with Congress in the leading role, surrounded by a
supporting cast of opportunistic ministers, movie moguls,
stockbrokers, labor leaders, sports fanatics, and railroad
execs.
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