| International Standard Book Number |
9780393867947 (epub)
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| International Standard Book Number |
9780393867930 (hardcover)
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| International Standard Book Number |
0393867935 (hardcover)
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| Personal Name |
Rooney, David, 1974- author.
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| Title Statement |
About time : a history of civilization in twelve clocks / David Rooney.
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| Edition Statement |
First American edition.
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| Production, Publication, Distribution, Manufacture, and Copyright Notice |
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.
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| Physical Description |
ix, 271 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
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| General Note |
First published in Great Britain by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books.
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| Bibliography, Etc. Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-258) and index.
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| Formatted Contents Note |
Introduction: Korean Air Lines Flight 007, 1983 -- Order : sundial at the Forum, Rome, 263 BCE -- Faith : Castle Clock, Diyar Bakr, 1206 -- Virtue : the hourglass of Temperance, Siena, 1338 -- Markets : stock exchange clock, Amsterdam, 1611 -- Knowledge : Samrat Yantra, Jaipur, 1732-35 -- Empires : observatory time ball, Cape Town, 1833 -- Manufacture : Gog and Magog, London, 1865 -- Morality : electric time system, Brno, 1903-6 -- Resistance : telescope driving-clock, Edinburgh, 1913 -- Identity : golden telephone handsets, London, 1935 -- War : miniature atomic clocks, Munich, 1972 -- Peace : plutonium timekeeper, Osaka, 6970.
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| Summary, Etc. |
"A captivating, surprising history of timekeeping and how it has shaped our world. For thousands of years, people of all cultures have made and used clocks, from the city sundials of ancient Rome to the medieval water clocks of imperial China, hourglasses fomenting revolution in the Middle Ages, the Stock Exchange clock of Amsterdam in 1611, Enlightenment observatories in India, and the high-precision clocks circling the Earth on a fleet of GPS satellites that have been launched since 1978. Clocks have helped us navigate the world and build empires, and have even taken us to the brink of destruction. Elites have used them to wield power, make money, govern citizens, and control lives-and sometimes the people have used them to fight back. Through the stories of twelve clocks, About Time brings pivotal moments from the past vividly to life. Historian and lifelong clock enthusiast David Rooney takes us from the unveiling of al-Jazari's castle clock in 1206, in present-day Turkey; to the Cape of Good Hope observatory at the southern tip of Africa, where nineteenth-century British government astronomers moved the gears of empire with a time ball and a gun; to the burial of a plutonium clock now sealed beneath a public park in Osaka, where it will keep time for 5,000 years. Rooney shows, through these artifacts, how time has been imagined, politicized, and weaponized over the centuries-and how it might bring peace. Ultimately, he writes, the technical history of horology is only the start of the story. A history of clocks is a history of civilization"-- Provided by publisher.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Civilization.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Horology History.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Time Social aspects History.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Clocks and watches History.
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