Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving

Michael Downing

Counterpoint Press, Feb 13, 2006 - History - 202 pages

Michael Downing is obsessed with Daylight Saving, a loopy idea that became the most persistent political controversy in American history. Almost one hundred years ago, lawmakers across the country first debated, ridiculed, and then passionately embraced the possibility of saving an hour of daylight. To this day, no one can say for sure why we are required by law to change our clocks twice a year, or who first proposed the scheme.
Downing unravels the worldwide confusion occasioned by decades of clock manipulation. He sifts through a century of Congressional hearings and contemporary newspaper reporting to offer a portrait of public policy in the 20th century, a perennially boiling stew 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, educators, sports fanatics and farmers. This dizzyingly hilarious debate seems destined to continue for as long as we ask one another, "What time is it?"

What people are saying

Review: Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time

User Review  - David - Goodreads

Update two months later: I have read the other DST book published in 2005, Seize the Daylight by David Prerau. I think it is superior to this one. Now, on to my original review... I've been a Daylight ...

Review: Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time

User Review  - kingshearte - Goodreads

I am totally a Daylight Saving Time hater. I'll admit, though, that my hate is due mainly to just one week or so in the spring. For most of my working life (and I think even much of my school life, as ...

Contents

• The Infinite Hour: 1
• The Farmer in the Dew: 19
• Moon over Miami: 35
• Banking on the Big Apple: 39
• Capitol Sports: 57
• Mean Time: 71
• Split Decisions: 87
• Men of the Hour: 101
• Out of Uniform: 119
• Lawmakers and Jawbreakers: 129
• Millennial Fever: 153
• Acknowledgments: 171
• Index: 191

About the author

Downing teaches creative writing at Tufts University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving; History Series
• Author: Michael Downing
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Counterpoint Press, 2006
• ISBN: 1593761066, 9781593761066
• Length: 202 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History