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Calendar:: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year
The adventure spans the world from Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza, from Mayan observatories at Chichen Itza to the atomic clock in Washington, the world's official timekeeper since the 1960s. We visit cultures from Vedic India and Cleopatra's Egypt to Byzantium and the Elizabethan court; and meet an impressive cast of historic personages from Julius Caesar to Omar Khayyam, and giants of science from Galileo and Copernicus to Stephen Hawking. Our present calendar system predates the invention of the telescope, the mechanical clock, and the concept ol zero and its development is one of the great untold stories of science and history.
How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days? In short, how did the world
The adventure spans the world from Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza, from Mayan observatories at Chichen Itza to the atomic clock in Washington, the world's official timekeeper since the 1960s. We visit cultures from Vedic India and Cleopatra's Egypt to Byzantium and the Elizabethan court; and meet an impressive cast of historic personages from Julius Caesar to Omar Khayyam, and giants of science from Galileo and Copernicus to Stephen Hawking. Our present calendar system predates the invention of the telescope, the mechanical clock, and the concept ol zero and its development is one of the great untold stories of science and history. How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days?Book Details
- Publisher: Harper Perennial
- Publish Date: Jun 1st, 1999
- Pages: 352
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.08in - 5.29in - 0.78in - 0.56lb
- EAN: 9780380793242
- Categories: • World - General• Time• Space Science - Astronomy
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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.
More books by David Ewing Duncan
Praise for this book
-- Toronto Globe and Mail
-Stephen Jay Gould
""CALENDAR" sparkles Gripping, expansive and scholarly, it will be indispensable reading for years to come. Duncan has achieved a rare feat in turning something ordinary into an extraordinary metaphor of life."
-"The Observer"
"This book is as irresistible as the flow of time itself. The story about our age-old efforts to stay in step with the clocklike movements of the moon, sun and stars is funny and sad, dramatic and comical, and David Duncan tells it beautifully, even poetically."
-Dr. Michael Guillen, ABC News
"Duncan writes the way good teachers teach, conversational, yet informed he is a popularizer and storyteller "
-"USA Today" (Editor's Pick)
"David Duncan illuminates our calendar's remarkable evolution not just by telling us about time but also by letting us travel through it The story takes us to courts of kings, emperors and popes, from Egypt and India to Byzantium and Rome, and beyond. And, at every turn, the author brings the key players to life."
-"Toronto Globe and Mail"
"David Duncan takes his place in the ranks of the best explainers in print."
-Hugh Downs