History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders

Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum

University of Chicago Press, Jun 15, 1996 - Antiques & Collectibles - 455 pages

In this sweeping study of the organization of time, Dohrn-van Rossum offers fresh insight into the history of the mechanical clock and its influence on European society from the late Middle Ages to the industrial revolution. Detailing the clock's effects on social activity, he presents a vivid picture of a society regulated by the precise measurement of identical hours.

"In tracing the evolution of time consciousness with scholarship and skill . . . Dohrn-van Rossum evokes the many ways that the small moments of life have come to be reckoned with the passage of time."—Dava Sobel, Civilization

"Dohrn-van Rossum paints a highly nuanced picture of time's conquest of modern life."—Steven Lagerfeld, Wilson Quarterly

"This book is definitive in showing the clock's pervasive influence over European society."—Virginia Quarterly Review

"[A] delightful, excellently translated history."—Choice

"Dohrn-van Rossum has produced a persuasive and brilliantly documented new understanding of how modern time-consciousness arose."—Owen Gingerich, Nature

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History of the hour: clocks and modern temporal orders

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Today it is impossible to think of a life unregulated by clocks or a day structured other than in 24 60-minute hours. In the Middle Ages it was different, however, and changing. Historian Dohrn-van ...

Contents

• II: 1
• III: 3
• IV: 4
• V: 17
• VII: 20
• VIII: 21
• IX: 22
• X: 25
• XII: 29
• XIII: 30
• XIV: 33
• XV: 35
• XVI: 39
• XVII: 40
• XVIII: 45
• XIX: 48
• XX: 52
• XXI: 54
• XXII: 55
• XXIII: 64
• XXIV: 68
• XXV: 72
• XXVI: 75
• XXVII: 81
• XXVIII: 84
• XXIX: 89
• XXX: 96
• XXXI: 98
• XXXII: 103
• XXXIII: 105
• XXXIV: 106
• XXXV: 108
• XXXVI: 113
• XXXVII: 117
• XXXVIII: 118
• XXXIX: 125
• XL: 128
• XLI: 129
• XLII: 134
• XLIII: 140
• XLIV: 150
• XLV: 157
• XLVI: 159
• XLVII: 173
• XLVIII: 177
• XLIX: 180
• L: 185
• LI: 188
• LII: 193
• LIII: 197
• LIV: 202
• LV: 213
• LVI: 217
• LVII: 220
• LVIII: 226
• LIX: 231
• LX: 232
• LXI: 236
• LXII: 245
• LXIII: 251
• LXIV: 260
• LXV: 271
• LXVI: 275
• LXVII: 282
• LXVIII: 289
• LXIX: 290
• LXX: 294
• LXXI: 297
• LXXII: 299
• LXXIII: 305
• LXXIV: 307
• LXXV: 308
• LXXVI: 315
• LXXVII: 318
• LXXVIII: 323
• LXXIX: 326
• LXXX: 328
• LXXXI: 330
• LXXXII: 335
• LXXXIII: 340
• LXXXIV: 342
• LXXXV: 343
• LXXXVI: 347
• LXXXVII: 351
• LXXXVIII: 353
• LXXXIX: 435
• XC: 441

About the author

Dohrn-van Rossum teaches medieval and early history at the University of Bielefeld and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Gesine Schwan is a professor of political science at Freie Universitat Berlin. Thomas Dunlap's translations include Ute Deichmann's "Biologists under Hitler.

Bibliographic information

• Title: History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders
• Author: Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum
• Translated by: Thomas Dunlap, Thomas R. Dunlap
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0226155102, 9780226155104
• Length: 455 pages
• Subjects: Antiques & Collectibles / Clocks & Watches; History / Europe / Medieval; History / World; Science / General; Science / Time