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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days - Hardcover
Synopsis
The first complete history of the calendar, including tales of science, religion, superstition and politics from many eras; from Ancient Egypt to the flowering of Islamic and Indian civilizations.
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Review
In his latest book, David Ewing Duncan traces the development of our modern-day calendar and describes how people's experiences are shaped by their conception of time. Duncan postulates that all this concern with time started when a Cro-Magnon man decided to mark off the days of the lunar cycle on an eagle bone. After recounting the slow evolution of the calendar through the centuries, the author laments how time oriented our society has become: "There are moments when I am hopelessly late, or cannot possibly fit anything else into my schedule, when I sigh and wish that Cro-Magnon man 13,000 years ago in the Dordogne Valley had set aside his eagle bone and gone to bed."
The book is organized in chronological order and focuses mainly on the centuries leading up to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (our modern calendar) by the Catholic Church in 1582. Along the way, Duncan describes the ancient calendars of many cultures all over the globe, from India to Egypt to the Mayan empire. During the Middle Ages, Christian churches discouraged scientific inquiry on the theory that it was wrong to question the nature of God's creation. This severely hampered the refinement of the calendar and the advancement of many academic pursuits. By the 16th century, Europe's calendars were 11 days out of sync with the solar year, which meant Easter was being celebrated on the wrong day. An infusion of knowledge from India and the Middle East helped Europeans get back on track. Duncan profiles the many mathematicians, philosophers, and monks who made organizing time their life's work. This book honors the efforts of those scholars and examines the way politics and religion influenced societal perceptions of time through the ages. --Jill Marquis
About the Author
David Ewing Duncan is the author of five books, including the international bestseller Calendar, and writes for Wired, Discover, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is a freelance producer and correspondent for ABC's Nightline, and a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. He also writes the popular "Biotech and Creativity" column for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2003, he won the Magazine Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in San Francisco, California.
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- PublisherBrécourt Academic
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 1857027213
- ISBN 13 9781857027211
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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Brécourt Academic (edition First Edition), 1998
ISBN 10: 1857027213
ISBN 13: 9781857027211
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1. Seller Inventory # G1857027213I3N00
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1. Seller Inventory # G1857027213I4N10
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The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle To Align The Clock and the Heavens, and What Happened To The Missing Ten Days
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Fourth Estate 15/08/1998, 1998
ISBN 10: 1857027213
ISBN 13: 9781857027211
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The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle To Align The Clock and the Heavens, and What Happened To The Missing Ten Days
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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Condition: Good. Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. 0.93. Seller Inventory # 1857027213-2-4
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle To Align The Clock and the Heavens, and What Happened To The Missing Ten Days
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ISBN 10: 1857027213
ISBN 13: 9781857027211
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Measuring the daily and yearly cycle of the cosmos has never been entirely straightforward. The year 2000 is alternatively the year 2544 (Buddhist), 6236 (Ancient Egyptian), 5761 (Jewish) or simply the Year of the Dragon (Chinese). The story of the creation of the Western calendar, which is related in this book, is a story of emperors and popes, mathematicians and monks, and the growth of scientific calculation to the point where, bizarrely, our measurement of time by atomic pulses is now more accurate than time itself: the Earth is an elderly lady and slightly eccentric - she loses half a second a century. Days have been invented (Julius Caesar needed an extra 80 days in 46BC), lost (Pope Gregory XIII ditched ten days in 1582) and moved (because Julius Caesar had 31 in his month, Augustus determined that he should have the same, so he pinched one from February). Published with the world under threat from chaos arising from the expiry of computer dates after 31st December 1999, this study links politics and religion, astronomy and mathematics, and Cleopatra and Stephen Hawking. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002735353
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The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
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The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
Seller: Goldstone Books, Llandybie, United Kingdom
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. All orders are dispatched within one working day from our UK warehouse. We've been selling books online since 2004! We have over 750,000 books in stock. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. Seller Inventory # mon0003726110
Quantity: 1 available