On Time by Kenneth Mondschein

On Time by Kenneth Mondschein

An approachable, accessible history of timekeeping and the impact of the increasing precision and accuracy of time on humanity. 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.

That On Time is interactive is certainly a bonusMondschein provides activities, or exercises, to bring alive the abstract concepts and scientific observations he describes in each chapter—a fabulous idea that should be more widely adopted if a subject lends itself to this type of experimentation.
—Esther Liberman Cuenca, University of Houston, Victoria, Speculum
engaging book
—J. Lennart Berggren, The Compendium

Historian Ken Mondschein is a full-time contingent faculty member who teaches at the University of Massachusetts–Mount Ida, Boston University, and Anna Maria College. He is the editor and translator of Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise and the cotranslator of Flowers of Battle, Volume III: Florius de Arte Luctandi.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781421438276
ISBN 10	1421438275
Titel	On Time
Autor	Kenneth Mondschein
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Johns Hopkins University Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2020-11-10
Seitenanzahl	256
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar