Welcome to the WBZ Book Club. I'm Jordan Rich. As the year comes
to an end and a new one unfolds, here's a book to ponder.
Written in the nineteen nineties. It's called Calendar, Humanity's epic struggle to determine
a true and accurate year. The author is David Ewing. Duncan takes a
look historically and astronomically at the start of the calendar experience, visiting the Pyramids
of Giza, the Mayan observatories, and Stonehenge, all the way up to
the atomic clock, the official timekeeper. For the last sixty years. Just
about every culture has produced great thinkers who have added to our concept of time
and calendar, from Julius Caesar to Galileo to Copernicus to modern physicists such as
Stephen Hawking. The author looks at the creation of the mechanical clock and how
Pope Gregory amended the calendar, which was off by at least ten days.
It's an adventure that spans the world, how populations have dealt with the seasons,
and how the seasons have affected economies, and even who goes to war
and when. A fascinating look in a book called Calendar Humanities epic struggle to
determine a true and accurate year. The author is David Ewing Duncan, The
Book Club WZ Boston's news radio