Shaping the Day

Timekeeping is an essential activity in the modern world, and we take it for granted that our lives are shaped by the hours of the day. Yet what seems so ordinary today is actually the extraordinary outcome of centuries of technical innovation and circulation of ideas about time.Shaping the Day is a pathbreaking study of the practice of timekeeping in England and Wales between 1300 and 1800. Drawing on many unique historical sources, ranging from personal diaries to housekeeping manuals, Paul Glennie and Nigel Thrift illustrate how a particular kind of common sense about time came into being, and how it developed during this period.Many remarkable figures make their appearance, ranging from the well-known, such as Edmund Halley, Samuel Pepys, and John Harrison, who solved the problem of longitude, to less familiar characters, including sailors, gamblers, and burglars. Overturning many common perceptions of the past-for example, that clock time and the industrial revolution were intimately related-this unique historical study will engage all readers interested in how 'telling the time' has come to dominate our way of life.

There is a great deal of interest in this book, and many thought-provoking questions posed ... a provocative new look at timekeeping., [The authors'] approach is sophisticated and refreshing., [A] scrupulously researched...[and] impressive volume, A rigorously researched, ambitiously conceived, and richly detailed study of the practice of timekeeping - its origins, dynamics, and impact - set in a broad social and cultural context...a stunning achievement, with major implications for our understanding of technological innovation and the role of timekeeping in early modern Britain., The book is full of thought-provoking evidence that will prove useful to historians and historical geographers pursuing a wide range of social and cultural enquiries...accessible and engagingly written.

Dr Paul Glennie is Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of BristolProfessor Nigel Thrift is currently Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Bristol and a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. One of the world's leading human geographers and social scientists, Professor Thrift has, during his academic career, been the recipient of a number of distinguished academic awards, including the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal for contributions to geographic research in 2003 and Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the Association of American Geographers in 2007. He is an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, was made a Fellow of the BritishAcademy in 2003, was in the top five of the most-cited geographers in the world from 1988 to 2002, and is co-author, author or co-editor of over 35 books.