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

I grew up hearing as an explanation for Daylight Saving Time that it was "good for the farmers." It turns out that this is a widespread misconception, and it also turns out not to be true: farmers have in fact historically opposed the adoption or expansion of DST because of the inconveniences it imposes on them. Another childhood illusion put to bed, if decades late. Since 1986 the U.S. has observed DST from the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October. Beginning in 2007, DST is to be expanded by three weeks (in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005). It will now begin on the second Sunday of March and extend until the first Sunday of November. Given this change I figured it was high time for me to find out what Daylight Saving Time is all about. I review below David Prerau's Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time. It's the first of two DST-related books that have been weighing down my TBR shelves. Both books were published in 2005--the idea of exploring DST apparently being very much in the air in the first years of the new millennium. --- Benjamin Franklin proposed in 1784, when he was serving as the American minister to France, that Parisians conserve energy--in the form of candle wax and tallow--by changing their habits, rising with the sun rather than sleeping in with their shutters closed against the daylight. The idea never caught on, and it is at any rate impractical as it would depend on the alteration of individual habits on a large scale for it to have any chance of working for a community. Over a hundred years later, in 1905, a certain William Willett devised an alternative plan for increasing the number of usable daylight hours during England's summer months. His plan, what we now call Daylight Saving Time, called for setting the nation's clocks forward in the spring (he initially imagined the time being changed in 20-minute increments on each of four successive Sundays) and back in the fall, thus not relying on people to alter their sleep patterns on an individual basis. His idea didn't catch on either, at least not immediately. In his book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time author David Prerau, who has coauthored government reports on the effects of DST, traces the complex history of DST from Willett's tireless campaigning on behalf of its adoption to the modern era. Prerau also provides a chapter on the two artificial adjustments to natural sun time that men adopted prior to the introduction of DST. (Mean solar time was adopted starting in the late 18th century. It differs from apparent solar time in that the length of a day is a constant throughout the year rather than depending on the amount of daylight in any given day, which varies throughout the year. The second artificial adjustment was standard time, adopted in the late 19th century, which is when a single mean time is recognized over a large area.) The history of DST

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.

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.

I picked this book up for a quick summer vacation read. It is packed with historical trivia and very entertaining. If this is your vacation read, you better choose a second book as well because it is very well written and you will breeze though it.

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.