Daylight Saving Time: Reviews of Two Recent Books

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 widely held belief, 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 misconception 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 four 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 two DST-related books that have been weighing down my TBR shelves: David Prerau's Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time and Michael Downing's Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. 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.

David Prerau, Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time
Thunder's Mouth Press © 2005, 256 pages