Description
Book SynopsisIn the second half of the nineteenth century, American cities began to go dark. As hulking new buildings overspread blocks and glass and smog screened out the health-giving rays of the sun, and doctors began to note a resurgence of diseases of darkness like rickets and tuberculosis. This book tracks the American obsession with sunlight.
Trade Review"An erudite and often witty study of how natural light became a precious resource in an urbanizing and industrializing America: something to be measured and commodified; something so crucial to health that its loss to towering apartments, narrow streets, and smoky skies had to be mitigated by an impressive array of artificial means, from cod-liver oil and vitamin-fortified milk, to sunlamps and special window glass." (Christian Warren, Brooklyn College, City University of New York)"
