Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life

“Tells a story of a period when the quest for accurate timekeeping became an obsession in the US.” —Choice

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.

“A precise, acute, and well-measured monograph.” —Journal of Social History

“Important and engaging.” —Journal of American History

“ An innovative contribution on a key historical shift in modern life.” —Urban History

“An authoritative narrative of how and where time and timepieces were distributed in the period.” —Reviews in American History

© 2013 The University of Chicago Press (Ebook): 9780226015057

Release date

Ebook: May 1, 2013