Timekeepers

How the World Became Obsessed with Time

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Simon Garfield: Timekeepers (2017, Canongate Books)

368 pages

English language

Published March 1, 2017 by Canongate Books.

ISBN:
978-1-78211-321-8
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4 stars (2 reviews)

"Not so long ago we timed our lives by the movement of the sun. These days our time arrives atomically and insistently, and our lives are propelled by the notion that we will never have enough of the one thing we crave the most. How have we come to be dominated by something so arbitrary? The compelling stories in this book explore our obsessions with time. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic wishes ignored. A moment of war is frozen forever. The timetable arrives by steam train. A woman designs a ten-hour clock and reinvents the calendar. Roger Bannister becomes stuck in the same four minutes forever. A British watchmaker competes with mighty Switzerland. And a prince attempts to stop time in its tracks. Timekeepers is a vivid exploration of the ways we have perceived, contained and saved time over …

3 editions

Subjects

  • Time perception
  • Time
  • Time measurements