The History of Time: A Very Short Introduction

by Holford-Strevens, Leofranc

• ISBN13: 9780192804990
• ISBN10: 0192804995
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Why do we measure time in the way that we do? Why is a week seven days long? At what point did minutes and seconds come into being? Why are some calendars lunar and some solar?The organisation of time into hours, days, months and years seems immutable and universal, but is actually far more artificial than most people realise. The French Revolution resulted in a restructuring of the French calendar, and the Soviet Union experimented with five and then six-day weeks.Leofranc Holford-Strevens explores these questions using a range of fascinating examples from Ancient Rome and Julius Caesar's imposition of the Leap Year, to the 1920s' project for a fixed Easter.

Author Biography

Leofranc Holford-Strevens is the author of Aulus Gellius (1988), and co-author of The Oxford Companion to the Year.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
List of illustrations	xiv
The day	1	(17)
Months and years	18	(10)
Prehistory and history of the modern calendar	28	(16)
Easter	44	(20)
Weeks and seasons	64	(22)
Other calendars	86	(22)
Marking the year	108	(23)
Appendices	131	(4)
Further reading	135	(3)
Glossary	138	(2)
Index	140