McCrossen, Alexis,

Marking modern times : a history of clocks, watches, and other timekeepers in American life / Alexis McCrossen. - xvi, 255 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-246) and index.

Unveiling the jewelers' clock -- Time's tongue and hands: the first public clocks in the United States -- Clockwatching: the uneasy authority of clocks and watches in antebellum America -- Republican heirlooms, instruments of modern time discipline: pocket watches during and after the Civil War -- Noon, November 18, 1883: the abolition of local time, the debut of a national standard -- American synchronicity: turn-of-the-century tower clocks, street clocks, and time balls -- Monuments and monstrosities: the apex of the public clock era -- Content to look at my watch: the end of the public clock era.

In Marking Modern Times, Alexis McCrossen relates how the American preoccupation with time led people from across social classes to acquire watches and clocks, and expands our understanding of the ways we have standardized time and have made timekeepers serve as political, social, and cultural tools in a society that not merely values time, but regards access to it as a natural-born right.

9780226014869 022601486X 9780226379685 022637968X

40022148892

2012045005


1800-1999


Clocks and watches--History--United States--19th century.
Clocks and watches--History--United States--20th century.
Clocks and watches.


United States.

USA Clock watch McCrossen Alexis Timekeeper (general)


History.