<DIV>Unprecedented gas prices, heat waves and droughts, climate change, Solyndra ? all make ?alternative” sources of energy contemporary areas of activism, controversy, lobbying, and legislation. Yet few know that the ancient Chinese, Greeks, and Romans used solar energy in their architecture; that Galileo and da Vinci both planned uses for the power of the sun; and that by 1918, there were more than 4,000 solar water heaters in California. The <I>history</I> of solar architecture and energy technologies gives readers an epiphany-producing sense of its <I>future</I>. Detailing a realistic alternative to fossil fuels, in illustrations the <I>New York Times</I> called ?especially fine,” and prose <I>Library Journal</I> termed ?highly readable,” <I>Let It Shine</I> shows that there is nothing ? and plenty ? new under the sun.</DIV>