American Scientist

AMERICAN ECLIPSE: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World. David Baron. 368 pp. Liveright, 2024. $18.99.

First published in 2017, the paperback of American Eclipse, with a new afterword about the 2024 solar eclipse, is an impressive tale of science and adventure, featuring a cast of characters who are not only real, but also somehow very familiar. Set while America was still a young nation, barely 100 years old, post-Civil War and Reconstruction, the country was still very much divided, with significant conflicts regarding civil rights for women, formerly enslaved individuals, and the Indigenous population. This scenario, too, feels familiar. The book manages to convey both how the nation was very different so many years ago, but also how it is similar to the current situation of the United States in a variety of ways, while also taking us into the lives of several people who would leave their mark on science and society forever.

Although this book is a sprawling story of intersecting lives, all orbiting around the total solar eclipse at the American frontier in 1878, David Baron largely centers the book around three people: James Craig Watson, an astronomer who is struggling to prove his preeminence as a minor-planet hunter; Thomas Edison, the famed but overconfident inventor with a need to get recognition for his genius; and Maria Mitchell, a prominent woman scientist who opened doors for many other women who followed.

The stories of these scientists are set against a backdrop of a society still figuring itself out: women fighting for suffrage, the frontier city yearning to be a cultural center, and the nation’s science community trying to match up to the world science establishment dominated by European scientists. Indeed, the book at times feels as much about the larger society as it does the astronomers.

Baron also writes about previous eclipse expeditions, the early days of scientific institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and captures the intricacies between academics, and between those in the academy and those outside. He details the rivalry and animosity between the two academics vying for title of top planet hunter throughout the book, and there is a theme of the nonacademic as an outsider in the eclipse expeditions, whether this person is Edison in Wyoming or an Army Signal Corps General on Pikes Peak. However, in all cases, the outsiders seem to be embraced during and after totality. Throughout the book, Baron also adeptly explains scientific ideas discussed along the way, from planet and asteroid hunting, to Einstein’s theory of relativity, to the inner workings of Edison’s inventions.

A main theme of the book remains true even today: The United States has always been a messy place striving to find itself; but even within that messiness, there is still room for awe and wonder. Total Solar eclipses give these things, along with hope, to a nation even when it is most divided. Writing about the 2017 eclipse, Baron says, “In this age of polarized politics, siloed entertainment, and individualized news feeds, the eclipse offered a precious shared experience—one that lifted and joined rather than debased and divided.”

The book captures the nature of the astronomy community in the United States—and possibly academia as a whole—remarkably well in a way that still holds true, especially for female academics and/or astronomers: Baron astutely details many overly confident men, some desperate for recognition of their brilliance, and quietly capable women, simply getting on with the job at hand.

At the same time, the book is remarkable in how it evokes the joy and awe felt when one witnesses a total Solar eclipse. As Baron observes,

These rare and unearthly events, when they pass overhead, suspend human affairs and draw people out of their quotidian existence. Beholding the corona still provokes chills and tears. Some look up and find God. Others discover a new passion for science, a desire to understand the workings of the sun and solar system. The impact of eclipses remains life-changing, as I myself can wholly attest.

Where will you be for the eclipse?

Editors’ note: If you’re looking for even more eclipse reading, check out TOTALITY: The Great North American Eclipse of 2024 by Mark Littmann and Fred Espenak. If you have an eclipse-loving kid, the new book WHAT IS A SOLAR ECLIPSE? by Dana Meachen Rau is one to pick up.