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Rating: 
Summary: Time to Read this Book!
Review: This is a wonderful book! Written by one of America's premier horolgists, Carlene Stephens takes us through a history of the whole idea of time in America, from the earliest colonists to the most recent atomic clocks.
We all take time so much for granted today - it serves us, apparently at our command; but in fact Stephens demonstrates admirably how time also shaped our whole concept of American society, and how clever men and women took ideas and created institutions that were (are are) time-driven. This started in the agricultural fields of the earliest settlers, loosely bound to a sundial,then to town bells, to tick-tock clocks, to watches, and now cesium clocks good to one second every 20 million years.
The prose is compelling, never leaden; sometimes one has to turn ahead....to see how it's going to turn out! Stephens has a gentle sense of humor that enlivens the writing even further. The pictures are wonderful and support the writing beautifully (and the frontispiece picture of a tower clock is a knockout!)
The book is attractively designed, but don't be fooled: this is NOT a coffee-table book. It is meant to be read. There are plenty of "aha!" moments which will make you re-evaluate how and why you do what you do.
I'd give it 6 stars if Amazon.com would let me!
So, please follow the lead of the Massachusetts General Assembly of 1633 (quoted by Stephens): "No person...shall spend his time idly or unprofitably, under the pain of...punishment."
Get thee out and read this book!!! Richard Schubert
Bethesda, MD
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