Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar
"No book could serve as a better guide to the cumulative invention that defines the imaginary threshold to the new millennium."--Booklist
A Fascinating March through History and the Evolution of the Modern-Day Calendar . . .
In this vivid, fast-moving narrative, you'll discover the surprising story of how our modern calendar came about and how it has changed dramatically through the years. Acclaimed author Duncan Steel explores each major step in creating the current calendar along with the many different systems for defining the number of days in a week, the length of a month, and the number of days in a year. From the definition of the lunar month by Meton of Athens in 432 BC to the roles played by Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, and Isaac Newton to present-day proposals to reform our calendar, this entertaining read also presents "timely" tidbits that will take you across the full span of recorded history. Find out how and why comets have been used as clocks, why there is no year zero between 1 BC. and AD 1, and why for centuries Britain and its colonies rang in the New Year on March 25th. Marking Time will leave you with a sense of awe at the haphazard nature of our calendar's development. Once you've read this eye-opening book, you'll never look at the calendar the same way again.
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Book details
- Author
- Duncan Steel
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 432
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- Science › Time
- Topics
- calendar history · history of timekeeping · calendar reform · measurement of time · astronomy and time · history of science
- ISBN-13
- 9780471298274
About the author
DUNCAN STEEL is a British space scientist and discoverer of twelve minor planets, including 9767 Midsomer Norton. His books include Eclipse, Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar and Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets.
Steel holds a BSc from the University of London, an MSc and DIC from Imperial College London, and a PhD from the University of Canterbury. He served as Associate Professor in space technology at the Joule Physics Laboratory, University of Salford, and has worked with NASA on both its Detection and Intercept Committees assessing the threat of comet and asteroid collisions.
When not writing, Steel continues his work as a research astronomer and Visiting Researcher at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales. That scientific focus on planetary threats and cosmic cycles runs throughout his books.
Duncan lives in Canberra, Australia.