- Hardcover: 190 pages
- Publisher: Random House Inc (T); First Edition First Printing edition (Oct 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0609600761
- ISBN-13: 978-0609600764
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,412,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Questioning The Millennium
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In this slender volume, Stephen Jay Gould addresses three questions about the millennium with his typical combination of erudition, warmth and whimsy: As a calendrical event, what is the concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted over time? How did the projection of Christ's 1,000-year reign become a secular measure? And when exactly will the millennium begin--January 1, 2000 or January 2, 2001? "Our urge to know is so great, but our common errors cut so deep. You just gotta love us," he states disarmingly in the preface. "And you gotta view misguided millennial passion as a primary example of our uniqueness and our absurdity--in other words, of our humanity." Gould's own curiosity about time and calendars was triggered by a 1950 issue of Life magazine, which cut the century in half with its evaluation of what had happened and its prediction of things to come, propelling his third-grade mind to the year 2000. In Questioning the Millennium, Gould promises to make no predictions (other than "an orgy of millennial books"); court no millennial epiphanies; and put forth no theories on the collective angst that typically accompanies a century's end. Instead, he answers the millennial questions which, for him, represent the intersection of undeniable reality (natural fact) and human interpretation. Gould's questions and learned answers, weaving many historical and scientific facts, are a loving inquiry into the human need for order in a vast and teeming universe.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In Questioning the Millennium, Stephen Jay Gould applies his wit and erudition to one of today's most pressing subjects: the significance of the millennium.
In this beautiful inquiry into time and its milestones, he shares his interest and insights with his readers. Refreshingly reasoned, erudite, and absorbing, the book asks and answers the three major questions that define the approaching calendrical event:
First, what exactly is this concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted? How did the name for a future thousand year reign of Christ on earth get transferred to the passage of a secular period of a thousand years in current human history?
When does the new millennium begin: January 1, in the year 2000 or 2001?
Finally, why must our calendars be so complex, leading to our search for arbitrary regularity, including a fascination with millennia?
As always, Gould brings into his essays a wide range of compelling historical and scientific fact, including a brief history of millennia fevers, calendrical traditions and idiosyncrasies from around the world, the story of a sixth-century monk whose errors in chronology plague us even today, and the heroism of a young autistic man who has developed the extraordinary ability to calculate dates deep into the past and the future.
Ranging over a wide terrain of phenomena - from the arbitrary regularities of human calendars to the unpredictability of nature, from the vagaries of pop culture to the birth of Christ - Stephen Jay Gould holds the mirror up to our millennial passions to reveal our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.
In this beautiful inquiry into time and its milestones, he shares his interest and insights with his readers. Refreshingly reasoned, erudite, and absorbing, the book asks and answers the three major questions that define the approaching calendrical event:
First, what exactly is this concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted? How did the name for a future thousand year reign of Christ on earth get transferred to the passage of a secular period of a thousand years in current human history?
When does the new millennium begin: January 1, in the year 2000 or 2001?
Finally, why must our calendars be so complex, leading to our search for arbitrary regularity, including a fascination with millennia?
As always, Gould brings into his essays a wide range of compelling historical and scientific fact, including a brief history of millennia fevers, calendrical traditions and idiosyncrasies from around the world, the story of a sixth-century monk whose errors in chronology plague us even today, and the heroism of a young autistic man who has developed the extraordinary ability to calculate dates deep into the past and the future.
Ranging over a wide terrain of phenomena - from the arbitrary regularities of human calendars to the unpredictability of nature, from the vagaries of pop culture to the birth of Christ - Stephen Jay Gould holds the mirror up to our millennial passions to reveal our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.
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First Sentence
We inhabit a world of infinite and wondrous variety, a source of potential joy, especially if we can recapture childhood's fresh delight for "splendor in the grass" and "glory in the flower." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
We inhabit a world of infinite and wondrous variety, a source of potential joy, especially if we can recapture childhood's fresh delight for "splendor in the grass" and "glory in the flower." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devastating ammunition for pedants,
By A Customer
This review is from: Questioning the Millennium (Hardcover)
A nice, readable, short info-bomb exploding at the heart of the plans of those that would exploit the calendar's winding over to three zeros to justify wasteful public spending, or illusory national well-being. Surveying the history and science of date-keeping Gould, in a never less than informative and entertaining way, shows that the millennium is nothing more than a convenient fiction, an accident of incrementing numbers based on falsehoods and inventions in the distant and not so distant past. It's a shame that the time has passed for this book to have a wider impact, but never mind there's bound to be another year 2000 along for some nation or religious group sometime. A readable survey of the facts behind a fiction.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book!!!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Questioning The Millennium (Paperback)
This book is awesome for anyone with a sarcastic sense of humor, like myself. Gould pokes fun of people with narrow minds and rediculous ideas. I recommend this book to everyone.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The end of the millennium not one of opinion.,
By
This review is from: Questioning the Millennium (Hardcover)
It might be interesting to read, if the author weren't so arrogant and self-centred... and if, as a scientist should, he knew a bit more about mathematics. The question of when the millennium ends is not one of opinion, it is what it is. There is no year zero. Zero is an instant, namely the origin of the time axis. Let's graduate this axis in years. The interval between zero and 1, is called year 1. The interval between zero and -1, is called year -1. I repeat: there is no year zero. If the instant zero is the birth of Christ, year 1 is year 1 AD, year-1 is year 1 BC. And, of course, the second millennium after Christ ends on December 31, 2000. That's all there is to it.
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