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Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World

by David S. Landes

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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505348,046 (3.73)5
More than a decade after the publication of his dazzling book on the cultural, technological, and manufacturing aspects of measuring time and making clocks, David Landes has significantly expanded Revolution in Time. In a new preface and scores of updated passages, he explores new findings about medieval and early-modern time keeping, as well as contemporary hi-tech uses of the watch as mini-computer, cellular phone, and even radio receiver or television screen. While commenting on the latest research, Landes never loses his focus on the historical meaning of time and its many perceptions and uses, questions that go beyond history, that involve philosophers and possibly, theologians and literary folk as well.… (more)
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What keeps one coming back to the same book for years or even decades?

I can think of two books I’ve read and re-read for years; Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Revolution in Time by David S. Landes. It’s this second book I’ve been thinking about again after reading a blog post about early mechanical clocks

“Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Ding, daing, dong. Ding, daing, dong.”

I first stumbled across Revolution in Time around 1985 while exploring the nether regions of the Dundee University library. I found the opening of the book fascinating as it explained the need to measure time more precisely in late medieval Europe. Unlike Islam or Judaism, the Roman branch of Christianity (particularly the Benedictine rule) held offices at fixed times of day rather than during bands of time around sunrise, noon and sunset that can be assessed without a timekeeper. The monastic day or (Horarium) revolved around the eight canonical hours that would begin at midnight with the service of Matins followed by the morning office of Lauds at 3:00am.

While most of Europe in the middle ages lived an agrarian lifestyle regulated by the natural day, the Religious were subject to fixed times in each day and during the long dark winter nights. Given those conditions one can understand the anxiety about Brother John sleeping-in and not ringing the matins bell. They needed a reliable way to divide up the day.
It’s an interesting diversion to reflect on the fact that methods of telling the time elsewhere in the world don’t work well in Northern Europe. Water (clocks) freezes and sundials work best when one can be more confident of clear skies.

Revolution in Time tells a number of separate, but related, stories:
• The magnificent dead-end that was timekeeping in ancient China.
• The birth of mechanical timekeeping in medieval Europe.
• The race to fing the longitude and the story of John Harrison’s clocks.
• The history of the clock and watchmaking industry — for me, the least interesting part of the book.

I have travelled nearly 30 years with this book and will keep coming back to it because there is so much material to take in and Landes is a good story teller. Since first reading the book I’ve been lucky enough to visit some of the earliest clocks in Europe; theastronomical clock in Exeter CathedraL and the turret clock at Cotehele. It was fascinating to see that these are not precisely-engineered creations butmachines that have run for 500 or 600 years.

This is not just the story of instruments to measure time and break up the day into regular chunks. It’s the story that led to the industrial revolution and the modern world. ( )
2 vote Craiglea | Jan 21, 2014 |
Told the Harrison deck watch story before Longitude became popular. ( )
  hcubic | Feb 16, 2013 |
Clocks and timekeeping ( )
  IraSchor | Apr 5, 2007 |
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» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Landes, David S.Authorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Dauzat, Pierre-EmmanuelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Evrard, LouisTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Use time, or time will use you. - Old Proverb
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In memory of teachers and mentors: Arthur Harrison Cole, Donald Cope McKay, Sir Michael Moyse Postan, Abbot Payson Usher
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The question to ask is: Why clocks?
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More than a decade after the publication of his dazzling book on the cultural, technological, and manufacturing aspects of measuring time and making clocks, David Landes has significantly expanded Revolution in Time. In a new preface and scores of updated passages, he explores new findings about medieval and early-modern time keeping, as well as contemporary hi-tech uses of the watch as mini-computer, cellular phone, and even radio receiver or television screen. While commenting on the latest research, Landes never loses his focus on the historical meaning of time and its many perceptions and uses, questions that go beyond history, that involve philosophers and possibly, theologians and literary folk as well.

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