This Is The Last…

I just finished reading Seize the Daylight. I’ve always wondered why we spring forward and fall back every year. I knew there was a good reason for it. This book tells the story of the origin of Daylight Savings Time, the drama that surrounded it, and the slow adoption of it around the world. I doubt anyone reading this post will actually want to read this book, its no Da Vinci Code. But I found it quite interesting for being non-fiction.

The purpose of DST is to change the hours of human activity to make the best use of daylight, as opposed to wasting time (by sleeping in long past sunup). Germany was the first to adopt DST, during WWI to save energy. Britain and America soon followed.

Some people really wanted DST because they conserved energy, they had more time in the evening for sports and recreation, more sunlight meant less car accidents in the evening and lower crime in the evening. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to realize how much could be saved by saving the daylight.

While other people fiercely opposed DST because they thought it was a huge inconvenience to change their clocks twice a year, they were concerned about their kids walking to the bus stop while it was still dark out, and they didn’t feel that they were really gaining anything. The farmers especially opposed DST. Farmers complained that they could not change their daily schedule and start work an hour earlier just because the numbering of the hours had changed. Owners of drive-in movie theaters did not appreciate the extra hour of sunlight, either.

This book is full of funny anecdotes and the participation of remarkably quirky individuals who felt passionately about saving the daylight—Ben Franklin, Winston Churchill, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Franklin Roosevelt. An interesting read, to say the least.

p.s. We’re gonna be doing a book club starting in October. We’re gonna do three books in three months. All with the same theme. If you have any suggestions, let’s hear ‘em.