TK17 0-15-603244-9 Dark light; ...

TK17

0-15-603244-9

Dark light; electricity and anxiety from the telegraph to the x-ray.

Simon, Linda.

Harcourt, [c]2004

357 p

$1400 (pa)

In Edison's time the sobriquet "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was not necessarily a compliment. Simon (English, Skidmore College) examines in what manner Americans approached the advent of the Electric Age with suspicion and fear, partially because electricity was just discovered and untried and indicated a change to a world they did not know. However, those who promot it behaved rather singularly animating cows' heads, conducting seances, mesmerizing young women and conducting capital punishment with electricity. Simon analyzes by what mode conflicting attitudes about progress, the dead body and science itself affected and affects the acceptance of electricity, or any other signifier of progres into the lives of ordinary Americans.

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