QUESTIONING THE MILLENNIUM; A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown / Stephen Jay Gould

Gould, Stephen Jay

ISBN 10: 0609600761 / ISBN 13: 9780609600764

Published by Harmony Books / Crown Publishers, New York, 1997

About this Item

SIGNED by the Author on a bookplate, small 8vo, red quarter cloth with silver lettering over black boards, illustrated with 16 full-page reproductions of pictures, archival mylar-protected photographic dust jacket (unclipped) with color photo of Van der Weyden painting, 190 pages. Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002) was a highly influential American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science who dividied his time between Harvard, New York University, and the American Museum of Natural History. Gould's most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is characterized by long periods of evolutionary stability, which is infrequently punctuated by swift periods of branching evolution. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans, and evolutionary psychology. He campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields (or "non-overlapping magisteria") whose authorities do not overlap. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a "Living Legend." EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION: Scarce thus SIGNED.

Seller Inventory # 4219

Bibliographic Details

• Title: QUESTIONING THE MILLENNIUM; A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown / Stephen Jay Gould
• Publisher: Harmony Books / Crown Publishers, New York
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0609600761
• ISBN 13: 9780609600764
• Binding: Cloth
• Illustrator: religious pictures
• Edition: First Edition, 3rd printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Natural Science

About this title

Synopsis

In Questioning the Millennium, Stephen Jay Gould applies his wit and erudition to one of today's most pressing subjects:  the significance of the millennium.

In this beautiful inquiry into time and its milestones, he shares his interest and insights with his readers.  Refreshingly reasoned, erudite, and absorbing, the book asks and answers the three major questions that define the approaching calendrical event:
First, what exactly is this concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted?  How did the name for a future thousand year reign of Christ on earth get transferred to the passage of a secular period of a thousand years in current human history?  

When does the new millennium begin:  January 1, in the year 2000 or 2001?  

Finally, why must our calendars be so complex, leading to our search for arbitrary regularity, including a fascination with millennia?
As always, Gould brings into his essays a wide range of compelling historical and scientific fact, including a brief history of millennia fevers, calendrical traditions and idiosyncrasies from around the world, the story of a sixth-century monk whose errors in chronology plague us even today, and the heroism of a young autistic man who has developed the extraordinary ability to calculate dates deep into the past and the future.

Ranging over a wide terrain of phenomena - from the arbitrary regularities of human calendars to the unpredictability of nature, from the vagaries of pop culture to the birth of Christ - Stephen Jay Gould holds the mirror up to our millennial passions to reveal our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.

About the Author

Stephen Jay Gould was one of the most influential evolutionary biologists and most acclaimed science essayists of the 20th century. He died in May 2002. He was the author of numerous books, including The Lying Stones of Marrakech and Questioning the Millennium.