River of Shadows - Rebecca Solnit

River of Shadows: The Birth of Cinema and the Making of Modern America

In 1872, Eadweard Muybridge – a British photographer who landed in California during the Gold Rush – captured images of high-speed movement. These photographs would lay the foundations for motion pictures, changing the West Coast of America, and the world, forever.

River of Shadows is both a bold and original biography of a true pioneer – his trailblazing work and his complicated life – and a portrait of America on the threshold of modernity.

Drawing lines from Muybridge’s invention to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, Rebecca Solnit explores how this remarkable breakthrough has shaped the world today.