Mondschein, Kenneth C. (Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Physical Details: 257
Language: English
Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time, Ken Mondschein explores the paired development of concepts and technologies of timekeeping with human thought. Without clocks, he argues, the modern world as we know it would not exist. From the astronomical timekeeping of the ancient world to the tower clocks of the Middle Ages to the seagoing chronometer, the quartz watch, and the atomic clock, greater precision and accuracy have had profound effects on human society—which, in turn, has driven the quest for further precision and accuracy. This quest toward automation—which gave rise to the Gregorian calendar, the factory clock, and even the near-disastrous Y2K bug—has led to profound social repercussions and driven the creation of the modern scientific mindset. Surveying the evolution of the clock from prehistory to the twenty-first century, Mondschein explains how both the technology and the philosophy behind Western timekeeping regimes came to take over the entire world. On Time is a story of thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, and of the thousand decisions that continue to shape our daily lives.
...MoreReview Alexis McCrossen (April 2021) Review of "On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping". Technology and Culture (pp. 599-600).
Similar Citations
Book
Kassandra J. Miller;
Sarah Symons;
(2019)
Down to the Hour: Short Time in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
(/isis/citation/CBB151821572/)
Book
Anthony Turner;
James Nye;
Jonathan Betts;
(2022)
A General History of Horology
(/isis/citation/CBB050701589/)
Book
Avner Wishnitzer;
(2015)
Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB623033357/)
Book
McCrossen, Alexis;
(2013)
Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001201284/)
Thesis
Kate E. Wersan;
(2019)
Between the Calendar and the Clock, an Environmental History of American Timekeeping in the Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB715387504/)
Book
Anna Delalande;
Dominique Delalande;
Eric Delalande;
(2015)
Sabliers d'autrefois - Hourglasses of the Past - Clessidre d'altri tempi
(/isis/citation/CBB937044102/)
Article
Jens Ivo Engels;
(2020)
Infrastrukturen als Produkte und Produzenten von Zeit
(/isis/citation/CBB029429587/)
Book
Vanessa Ogle;
(2015)
The Global Transformation of Time: 1870-1950
(/isis/citation/CBB956367177/)
Article
Blondé, Bruno;
Verhoeven, Gerrit;
(2013)
Against the Clock: Time Awareness in Early Modern Antwerp, 1585--1789
(/isis/citation/CBB001201795/)
Article
Meropi Morfouli;
(2019)
Philippe de La Hire et les horloges à pendule
(/isis/citation/CBB386058528/)
Article
Richard de Grijs;
(2020)
Alexander Bruce: Scotland's accidental 'Scientific Revolutionary'
(/isis/citation/CBB400315220/)
Book
Rory McEvoy;
Jonathan Betts;
(2020)
Harrison Decoded: Towards A Perfect Pendulum Clock
(/isis/citation/CBB018088141/)
Book
Tony Buick;
(2020)
Orreries, Clocks, and London Society: The Evolution of Astronomical Instruments and Their Makers
(/isis/citation/CBB958117823/)
Chapter
Anthony Turner;
(2019)
A Mingling of Traditions: Aspects of Dialling in Islam
(/isis/citation/CBB205481356/)
Book
Mark D. McCoy;
(2022)
Maps for Time Travelers: How Archaeologists Use Technology to Bring Us Closer to the Past
(/isis/citation/CBB663549068/)
Book
McCrossen, Alexis;
(2013)
Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001451962/)
Article
Brock, Emily;
(January 2018)
Sudden Change as an Unwelcome Experiment: Lessons on Time from Forest Management
(/isis/citation/CBB322236721/)
Book
Yuval Dolev;
Michael Roubach;
(2015)
Cosmological and Psychological Time
(/isis/citation/CBB138681811/)
Article
Wright, Aaron Sidney;
(2014)
The Advantages of Bringing Infinity to a Finite Place: Penrose Diagrams as Objects of Intuition
(/isis/citation/CBB001201044/)
Book
Bardon, Adrian;
(2013)
A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time
(/isis/citation/CBB001421712/)
Be the first to comment!