Chasing the Sun
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- Synopsis
- In the grand tradition of the scholar-adventurer, acclaimed author Richard Cohen takes us around the world to illuminate our relationship with the star that gives us life. Drawing on more than seven years of research, he reports from locations in eighteen different countries. As he soon discovers, the Sun is present everywhere--in mythology, language, religion, politics, sciences, art, literature, and medicine, even in the ocean's depths. For some ancient worshippers, our star was a man abandoned by his spouse because his brightness made her weary. The early Christians appropriated the Sun's imagery, with the cross becoming an emblem of the star and its rays, and the halo a variation of that. Einstein helped replicate the Sun's power to create the atomic bomb, while Richard Wagner had Tristan inveigh against daylight as the enemy of romantic love. In this splendidly illustrated volume packed with captivating facts, extraordinary myths, and surprising anecdotes, Cohen not only explains the star that so inspires us, but shows how multifacted our relationship with it has been--and continues to be. tide, makes us all minutely taller); extraordinary myths (in India, just a few years ago, pregnant women were still being kept indoors during an eclipse, for fear their babies would be born blind or with cleft palates); and surprising anecdotes (during the Vietnam War, a large number of mines dropped into Haiphong harbor blew up simultaneously in response to a large solar flare), this splendidly illustrated volume is erudite, informative, and supremely entertaining. It not only explains the star that so inspires us, but shows how complex our relations with it have been--and continue to be.From the Hardcover edition.
- Copyright:
- 2010
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- ISBN-13:
- 9781588369345
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781400068753
- Publisher:
- Random House Publishing Group
- Date of Addition:
- 10/13/11
- Copyrighted By:
- Narrative Tension, Inc.
- Adult content:
- Yes
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Science, Travel
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.