Marking Modern Times
A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life
The public spaces and buildings of the United States are home to many thousands of timepieces – bells, time balls, and clock faces – that tower over urban streets, peek out from lobbies, and gleam in store windows. And in the streets and squares beneath them, men, women, and children wear wristwatches of all kinds. Americans have decorated their homes with clocks and included them in their poetry, sermons, stories, and songs. And as political instruments, social tools, and cultural symbols, these personal and public timekeepers have enjoyed a broad currency in art, life, and culture. In "Marking Modern Times", Alexis McCrossen relates how the American preoccupation with time led people from across social classes to acquire watches and clocks. While noting the difficulties in regulating and synchronizing so many timepieces, McCrossen expands our understanding of the development of modern time discipline, delving into the ways we have standardized time and describing how timekeepers have served as political, social, and cultural tools in a society that doesn't merely value time, but regards access to time as a natural-born right, a privilege of being an American.
About the Author
Alexis McCrossen is associate professor of history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She is the author of "Holy Day, Holiday: The American Sunday" and the editor of "Land of Necessity: Consumer Culture in the United States – Mexico Borderlands".
Reviews
"'Marking Modern Times' beautifully captures a complicated history behind the remarkable timepieces that once adorned our streets and public buildings. Like a good cultural historian, Alexis McCrossen picks up a story we have missed – 'a public clock era' punctuated by war and peace, poverty and prosperity, by the wishes of local jewelers, railroad magnates, reforming politicians and the federal government. And the illustrations are a delight!" – Ann Fabian, author of "The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America's Unburied Dead"
"'Marking Modern Times' is a terrific book. Creative, well researched, well written and original, Alexis McCrossen's account of public time and public clocks really captures nineteenth century notions of time and timekeeping. Her documentation of this era is really superb" – Michael O'Malley, author of "Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Money and Race in America"
"Alexis McCrossen's 'Marking Modern Times' is a rich and fascinating book full of wonderful detail about the visibility of time and the material history of timekeeping in America. This is a deeply researched study that speaks to readers across a variety of fields, from urban history and cultural history to the histories of technology and time" – David Henkin, author of "The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America"
