(see also Museum store, and credits)
We are often asked about books we might recommend. The following books relate to the development of calendars and the measurement of time. You may also wish to peruse calendars for sale at Amazon, and the exhibit credits for bibliographic sources. Items purchased through these links, as well as through the Museum store, help support WebExhibits.
History:
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Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle To Determine A True And Accurate Yearby David E. DuncanDuncan’s engaging narrative traces the development of our modern-day (Gregorian) calendar, and describes how people’s experiences are shaped by their conception of time. The author also describes ancient calendars of many cultures around the globe, from India to Egypt to the Mayan empire. ISBN: 0380793245 |
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Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendarby Duncan SteelThis Australian astronomer (Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets) relates a general history of the development of the calendar system, a reassessment of why England settled the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, and advanced astronomical information for the science buff or professional. ISBN: 0471404217 |
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Time’s Pendulum: From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, the Fascinating History of Timekeeping and How Our Discoveries Changed the Worldby Jo Ellen BarnettBarnett’s lively history of 4,000 years of timekeeping strikes a balance of science, history, and sociology. The book traces the important developments in humankind’s epic quest to measure hours, days, and years with accuracy, and how our concept of time has changed with each breakthrough. ISBN: 0156006499 |
Science & Humanities:
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Story of Timeby Kristen LippincottMultidisciplinary and cross-cultural in its subject matter and approach, and all-encompassing in its scope, this academic book is written by an outstanding international cast of authors, including Umberto Eco and Sir Ernst Gombrich, each one a renowned expert from the fields of science, art, history, philosophy, or culture. ISBN: 1858940729 |
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Eyewitness: Time & Spaceby John R. Gribbin, Mary GribbinOrganized like an illustrated travel guide, this book provides a quick tour of the mysteries of the Universe. Superb full-color photography and innovative 3-D models allow readers to see how time and space are measured, discover the world’s largest telescope in Hawaii, understand a sonic tape measure, peek inside an atom, and explore how pulsars flicker on and off with amazing precision. ISBN: 0789455781 |
Technical:
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Calendrical Calculations: The Millennium Editionby Edward M. Reingold & Nachum DershowitzThis reference book explains how to make accurate calendrical algorithms available for computer use with LISP, Mathematica, and Java code. All of the code necessary for these algorithms is presented on the CD-ROM. ISBN: 0521777526 |
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The Book of Calendarsby Frank PariseParise’s reference work provides tables that convert dates from sixty ancient and modern calendars to those from the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ISBN: 1931956766 |
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Standard C Date/Time Library: Programming the World’s Calendars and Clocksby Lance LathamLatham wrote the C programming functions that constitute a complete date and time toolkit. He details the Julian calendar and the calendars of most major cultures of the world, and supplies the historical knowledge necessary to determine the rules of use and the range of problems that programming a solution must address. ISBN: 0879304960 |
