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Amazon.co.uk Review
In this book, David Ewing Duncan traces the development of our modern-day calendar and describes how people's experiences are shaped by their conception of time. Duncan postulates that all this concern with time started when a Cro-Magnon man decided to mark off the days of the lunar cycle on an eagle bone. After recounting the slow evolution of the calendar through the centuries, the author laments how time oriented our society has become: "There are moments when I am hopelessly late, or cannot possibly fit anything else into my schedule, when I sigh and wish that Cro-Magnon man 13,000 years ago in the Dordogne Valley had set aside his eagle bone and gone to bed."
The book is organised in chronological order and focuses mainly on the centuries leading up to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (our modern calendar) by the Catholic Church in 1582. Along the way, Duncan describes the ancient calendars of many cultures all over the globe, from India to Egypt to the Mayan empire. During the Middle Ages, Christian churches discouraged scientific inquiry on the theory that it was wrong to question the nature of God's creation. This severely hampered the refinement of the calendar and the advancement of many academic pursuits. By the 16th century, Europe's calendars were 11 days out of sync with the solar year, which meant Easter was being celebrated on the wrong day. An infusion of knowledge from India and the Middle East helped Europeans get back on track. Duncan profiles the many mathematicians, philosophers, and monks who made organising time their life's work. This book honours the efforts of those scholars and examines the way politics and religion influenced societal perceptions of time through the ages. --Jill Marquis, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“The fruitily donnish tones of Jacobi give the confident impression of a man who has understood with ease the mathematical, astronomical, theological and political complications through which the calendar was arrived at… In Ewing Duncan’s account, the developments in measuring time were central to everything, and provide a fascinating – and unifying – way of looking at world history, from the Sumerians to the Renaissance”
Sunday Times 18/10/98
“an impressive and hypnotic lecture on the history of the calendar on your wall and the watch on your wrist… Derek Jacobi is just the man to give us three hours of his time to explain.”
Ham & High 6/11/98
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A long and instructive journey through time and time measuring. The reader is taken from civilizations using the moon cycles to measure time to the first solar calendars, the successive way of naming of the months and days, the secularisation of the concept of "hour" leaving the monastic rhythm to correspond to a certain amount of time indicated on the first mechanical clocks, and more and more accurate mathematical concepts and instruments of measure, since the researches go on.
No need to be a clockmaker or good at mathematics, however: everything is said in plain English, with even a pinch of suspense that keeps pushing you towards the next page.
Since the story of the calendar is closely related to that of Western social structure, the balance between religious and secular powers, and our daily life and beliefs, it also informs us on our cultural history. We discover, for instance, the importance of the long debate about when exactly Easter should be celebrated at a time when the Christian Churches (Catholic and Orthodox, mainly) had great political powers. We also see how life in growing cities of merchants imposed agreements on the calendar that would allow deadlines to be fixed and respected, and actions to be taken against those who wouldn't meet them.
The book gives a succession of key-moments or smaller events, which remind us of the extreme relativity of something we tend to take for granted - the calendar.
It is written with a pleasant fluency by an author who clearly recognizes he isn't an expert in the field but obviously researched the subject with great care. Some points are maybe treated a bit too extensively, but let's take it for a side-effect of the author's enthusiam.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author admits that his approach is that of a story-teller, not an academic. His style is patchy and uneven, and the pace varies with his degree of interest in the period about which he is writing. The book appears to have been spell-checked but not proof-read; every so often there is something odd in the text that should have been picked up before printing. On the good side, it's a generally enjoyable read with lots of fascinating detail about the development of maths - e.g. why we have 360º in a circle - and the author is very enthusiastic and gosh-wow. The trouble with amateur historians....With a little more effort and precision this book could have been excellent. It just needed a tougher-minded editor.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Calendar is a masterful account of something we are all familiar with on a daily basis, and mostly just take for granted. The story of how the calendar took shape, from mankind's starting position of knowing nothing about the environment he lived in, up to modern times is fascinating, and spans many great civilisations and religions.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Personally I loved it because ...
.. it made me realise how almost impossible it is to measure time and record a system of doing that. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Doc Barbara
A fascinating and brilliant book
This is indeed a truly fascinating and remarkable story of how our calendar go to be the way it is. Read more
Published 14 months ago by M. Spoors
Octavian's megalomania took over the world
This was a fantastic holiday read and compelling enough to be finished without delay. The author takes you by the hand to the invention of the modern calendar, starting from a... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Sarakani
Fascinating subject poorly described
Subtitled "the 5000-year struggle to align the clock and the heavens", this book takes on the challenge of covering calendar designs from Mayan civilisations to the present day. Read more
Published on 7 April 2009 by John Holland
Time and Power
A appealing fact-jammed book about something we use everyday - the calendar.
I never thought there were so many events and people involved in its story dating back to time... Read more
I never thought there were so many events and people involved in its story dating back to time... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2008 by Acquafortis
An excellent book that will turn you into a time-geek!
This is the best popular science book I have read, the subject matter is easily accessible and the story of the development of the calendar is well told. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2003 by Martin Ohara
I you are looking for a fast compendium ...
...of the last history of the calendar: this is the one. It takes a good picture of how Religion and State affairs had influenced its development. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2001 by csiguenza@iies.es
Page turning account of western scientific history...
This book is another in the long list of well written, highly enjoyable accounts of the lives, successes and frustrations of scientists over time. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2001 by Nosy Wombat
Excellent history of the calendar for the layman
This book is a treasure. It's written in a storytelling style which makes it very readable and enjoyable. Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2000
A wide range of disparate information about the calendar
Full of interesting facts like where the words, algebra and algorithmn come from and why the UK tax year runs from April 6th to the following April 5th.
Published on 4 April 2000
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