Time: Its Origin, Its Enigma, Its History (Hardcover)

by Alexander Waugh (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In the beginning, Genesis tells us, was darkness and void, the terrible bleakness of infinity. Modern science has sought to understand that time before time, to describe the origins of the universe, and to model how the world will come to its explosive or whimpering end.

Alexander Waugh, a scion of the family of British satirists, brackets his history of time with the essentially unknowable matters of origin and denouement. But what captures his interest more is the time in between; namely, how different cultures have organized chronological reality and left their mark on our calendar today. Organizing his narrative by units of time that progress from seconds to ages, Waugh looks into the history of water clocks, the temporal theories of Sumerian astronomers and Greek philosophers, and the calendrical reforms of Roman emperors, medieval popes, French revolutionaries, and modern physicists. Waugh writes with a light touch and with much good humor, throwing in his view of whether the third millennium begins in 2000 or 2001 (he calls advocates of the latter position "carping fusspots") and musing over such heady matters as whether the space-time continuum disproves once and for all the theory of free will.

If you're at all interested in how our calendar came to be--or need instructions on how to build your own Stonehenge--then Time is just the book for you. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
From the beginning of time to the end of days, from the 60-second minute to the Roaring '20s and the first millennium, the confident Waugh (author of Classical Music: A New Way of Listening, and grandson of novelist Evelyn) has written a zippy and hard-to-classify meditation on types and ways of thinking about time. Each of Waugh's chapters covers one unit of time (seconds, centuries) or one subject related to it (the Big Bang, the afterlife). Sumerian counting methods, early medieval theology, Anglo-Dutch disputes over the spring-driven pocket watch, 19th-century essayist William Hazlitt, the rise and fall of Greenwich Mean Time and a 156-year-old tortoise (among other topics) give zest to Waugh's paragraphs. Waugh clearly has assembled this intriguing book from his own researches; he seems especially good on English folklore and on ancient Rome. Sometimes he presents legend as if it were truth, however, or makes mistakes. Zeno's paradoxes (in which a tortoise wins a race with Achilles) did not go mysteriously unsolved until the invention of quantum theory. The Greek-language Old Testament called the Septuagint wasn't really produced by six translators from each of Israel's 12 tribes. The "existence of life" cannot refute the laws of thermodynamics. And so on. Moreover, Waugh can be funny, but his attempts at verve and humor make him sound silly or glib: the ancient Sumerians brought, he writes, "a much-needed element of calm into the frantic maelstrom of ancient life"; and he says, "It is a wonder that Jesus was so thin, for food was never far from his thoughts." Plenty of readers may enjoy Waugh's work, but its flaws detract from its appeal. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786707674
• ISBN-13: 978-0786707676
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,009,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars In Trivial, Satirical Pursuit of Time's History and Concepts, May 1, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This book takes the essential measures of time that we use (from time before the beginning to the notion of the end of time) and explains the conceptual and factual roots of each one. The book takes a humorous approach, scattering random missiles at philosophers, religious thinkers, and scientists alike. The book's main benefit is that you will be able to answer almost anyone's simple questions about anything related to time. The book's main drawback is that it does tend to give you more than you wanted in many ways (such as all the ancient beliefs and measurement systems) and not enough in other, more relevant ways (such as about the space-time continuuum).

The book begins with the sort of questions that a child might ask, and although that structure is not repeated, it is certainly still the book's focus. No parent need ever be caught out with this book in hand concerning any basic question about time.

The historical and religious roots of many concepts of time were interesting to me. I did not realize that many Jewish concepts of time (now also incorporated in Christian practices) had their basis in Babylon. The notion of a seventh day of rest is an example. The Babylonians thought that the seventh day was unlikely, and reduced their activity to lessen risk. Naturally, they wanted their Jewish servants to do the same. The Book of Genesis seems to be based on a Babylonian text.

The book looks at the beginning of time, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, era, eternity, primitive time, complex time, and the end of time in separate chapters.

I found the sections on the beginning of time, minutes, weeks, and eternity to be the most interesting. The more conceptual aspects fascinated me, especially where many choices could have been made. When you get to months and years, there is a certain inevitability associated with the lunar and solar cycles.

Overall, the book could have been shortened by about 100 pages and made much punchier. Or after editing out those 100 pages (where the author does go on), 100 pages of modern science could have been added in.

For what he was trying to do, this is about a four star book. If he had been more concise, the writing style and material could have sustained a five star book. The book's overly simplistic focus caused the book to drop another star in my estimation.

If you just want a reference to be able to answer questions about the origin of time, this is probably a five star book. Perhaps that is the book's best application.

After you finish the book, imagine how your life would be different if you operated independent of time. What would you gain? What would you lose? How can you get more benefits from ignoring time with few losses?

Enjoy the moment, because that's the only place you can easily be.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting history, light in science, December 4, 2000

By A Customer

The book is basically made up of two parts: an historic overview of how time came to be measured the way it is (why there are 60 seconds in a minute, 12 months in a year, etc.); and a more esoteric discussion of the essence of time. The historic information was fascinating and was exactly what I had hoped for. I did not read this book hoping to get an in-depth scientific analysis of the dimension of Time (there are tons of other books out there to address that need) and thought the level at which that subject was covered was appropriate for this books intended audience.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A unique telling of the history of time, August 17, 2000

By	Achilles - See all my reviews

This book is predominately a history of time and a fascinating history at that. By breaking the chapters up into length of time (second, minute, hour, etc.), the numerous facts and stories are well organized and easy to retain. Time is a difficult subject to write about because no one has ever understood it. Alexander Waugh is no exception. Although, he does successfully unveil our ignorance on the subject, a discussion curiously hidden from scholarly writings. The chapters are a quick read with oversized text that quickly jumps from a period of time to another. All in all, the book does an excellent job focusing on the happenstance of yesterday that brought about are modern notion of time. I deducted the one star because of Mr. Waugh's liberal writing style. It was amusing at times but a little much for all 288 pages.