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    River of Shadows

    Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West

    Author Rebecca Solnit
    Ebook
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    On sale Mar 02, 2004 | 320 Pages | 9781101662663
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    A New York Times Notable Book

    Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, The Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Sally Hacker Prize for the History of Technology

    “A panoramic vision of cultural change” —The New York Times

    Through the story of the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the author of Orwell's Roses explores what it was about California in the late 19th-century that enabled it to become such a center of technological and cultural innovation

    The world as we know it today began in California in the late 1800s, and Eadweard Muybridge had a lot to do with it. This striking assertion is at the heart of Rebecca Solnit’s new book, which weaves together biography, history, and fascinating insights into art and technology to create a boldly original portrait of America on the threshold of modernity. The story of Muybridge—who in 1872 succeeded in capturing high-speed motion photographically—becomes a lens for a larger story about the acceleration and industrialization of everyday life. Solnit shows how the peculiar freedoms and opportunities of post–Civil War California led directly to the two industries—Hollywood and Silicon Valley—that have most powerfully defined contemporary society.
    River of ShadowsThe Annihilation of Time and Space
    The Man with the Cloudy Skies
    Lessons of the Golden Spike
    Standing on the Brink
    Lost River
    A Day in the Life, Two Deaths, More Photographs
    Skinning the City
    Stopping Time
    The Artist in Motion and at Rest
    From the Center of the World to the Final Frontier

    Chronology
    Notes
    Acknowledgments
    Photograph Credits
    Index

    • WINNER
      Commonwealth Club of California Book Award
    • WINNER
      Mark Lynton History Prize
    • WINNER
      National Book Critics Circle Awards
    • WINNER
      Spur Awards
    © Trent Davis Bailey
    Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including the memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence and the nonfiction A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian and other publications. View titles by Rebecca Solnit

    About

    A New York Times Notable Book

    Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, The Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Sally Hacker Prize for the History of Technology

    “A panoramic vision of cultural change” —The New York Times

    Through the story of the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the author of Orwell's Roses explores what it was about California in the late 19th-century that enabled it to become such a center of technological and cultural innovation

    The world as we know it today began in California in the late 1800s, and Eadweard Muybridge had a lot to do with it. This striking assertion is at the heart of Rebecca Solnit’s new book, which weaves together biography, history, and fascinating insights into art and technology to create a boldly original portrait of America on the threshold of modernity. The story of Muybridge—who in 1872 succeeded in capturing high-speed motion photographically—becomes a lens for a larger story about the acceleration and industrialization of everyday life. Solnit shows how the peculiar freedoms and opportunities of post–Civil War California led directly to the two industries—Hollywood and Silicon Valley—that have most powerfully defined contemporary society.

    Table of Contents

    River of ShadowsThe Annihilation of Time and Space
    The Man with the Cloudy Skies
    Lessons of the Golden Spike
    Standing on the Brink
    Lost River
    A Day in the Life, Two Deaths, More Photographs
    Skinning the City
    Stopping Time
    The Artist in Motion and at Rest
    From the Center of the World to the Final Frontier

    Chronology
    Notes
    Acknowledgments
    Photograph Credits
    Index

    Awards

    • WINNER
      Commonwealth Club of California Book Award
    • WINNER
      Mark Lynton History Prize
    • WINNER
      National Book Critics Circle Awards
    • WINNER
      Spur Awards

    Author

    © Trent Davis Bailey
    Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including the memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence and the nonfiction A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian and other publications. View titles by Rebecca Solnit

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