Time and timekeeping are often said to have transformed civilization; see, for instance, the widespread theory that innovations in mechanical clockwork forever changed medieval society. In his new book, horologist-geographer Rooney (Spaces of Congestion and Traffic) goes into great detail about the relationship between civilization and timekeeping. He analyzes the innovations and impacts of timekeeping devices from around the world, including a third-century BCE sundial at the Roman Forum, the 1611 Amsterdam Stock Exchange clock, and the Plutonium Timekeeper of Osaka, built in 1970 and placed into a time capsule to be opened in the year 6970. Rooney also discusses, for instance, the social implications of the clock tower at the British Raj-founded Mayo College in Ajmer, India, and its domination of the surrounding landscape. Readers will appreciate Rooney's history of timekeeping, from ancient sundials, to the water clocks of imperial China, to medieval hourglasses and mechanical clocks, to the Greenwich Royal Observatory. This book discusses timekeeping in terms of scientific innovation, artistry, and political power. VERDICT An interesting book for world history readers, especially those interested in the history of science or art.--Jeffrey Meyer, Iowa Wesleyan Univ.

Rooney's About Time provides a fascinating look at timekeeping devices throughout history and the societal roles they've filled. Opening with an airplane crash that may have been preventable with clock based GPS technology, this isn't a staid recounting of grandfather clocks and pocket watches. The book, divided into twelve sections like the familiar hours on a clock (but including far more than a dozen timepieces), argues that clocks have been instrumental to the plans of those in charge to control, manipulate, and motivate people. Whether symbolically, like the British clock towers looming over imperially controlled towns, or more directly, with factory owners cheating workers by changing the time, clocks are shown to frequently be political and rarely as neutral as we generally assume. Interspersed with these historical and academic discussions are lovely personal moments of the author's own visits to the locations of the iconic devices. A quick but thoughtful read ensuring you will never look at your alarm clock or smartphone the same way again. Highly recommend for fans of microhistories like Mark Kurlansky's Salt.

Rooney, the former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, debuts with a rich survey of how timekeeping has shaped human history. Beginning with the first city sundial mounted in ancient Rome in 263 BCE, Rooney argues that clocks have been used to control behavior and secure power. Built in 1611, Amsterdam's Stock Exchange Clock contributed to the "birth of modern capitalism" by tolling the city's "short, fixed trading hours," which increased trade volume and helped keep prices fair. In the 1830s, British astronomers at the Cape of Good Hope observatory in South Africa helped ships set their navigational instruments to time by firing a pistol and dropping a "time ball" from the top of a wooden mast ("an act of imperial timekeeping shot over the heads of the African people who were being displaced from their land and robbed of their freedom and humanity"). In the late 19th century, a new U.S.-based manufacturing system built on interchangeable parts and specialist machines brought the British clockmaking industry to its knees before revolutionizing manufacturing around the world. Rooney is an enthusiastic and well-informed guide, and doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the story. Readers will gain newfound appreciation for what it means to keep the time. (Aug.)

A cavalcade of clocks. Rooney, the former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, takes readers on a dramatic historical tour of horology to show what clocks mean; how, over thousands of years, they became more precise; and how time itself "has been harnessed, politicized and weaponized." The author delivers a lovely, personal, idiosyncratic "story centered on power, control, money, morality and belief." Rooney traces the development in timekeeping instruments, from the earliest sundials to an acoustic water clock that may have existed in the city of Verona in the early 500s to a plutonium time-capsule clock buried in Osaka in 1970. Automaton water clocks spread across the medieval Islamic world to remind its citizens of who was in power, and the first mechanical and astronomical clocks flourished throughout Europe after the 13th century. Gradually, Rooney notes, a new idea was born: "that time could be wasted." The author chronicles his visit to Siena to observe a painting from 1338 that prominently features the "oldest known depiction of an hourglass." This timepiece, he writes, represented "the cutting edge of horological technology" that would impact the way Western civilization thought about right and wrong, life and death. In the 1610s, Amsterdam's groundbreaking stock exchange erected "one of the most significant clocks ever made…sounding the birth of modern capitalism." In 1732, the Indian city of Jaipur constructed the largest sundial ever. The rise of coastal time signals--balls, discs, guns, or flags--"spoke volumes about the shifting sands of global geopolitics." Rooney also insightfully explores the ramifications of electricity and the creation of standardized time, which had a controversial, even violent, cultural impact: "we have poured our very identities into clocks." Somberly, the author writes about the "The Clock of Doom," designed in 1947, which reminds "us what happens when time runs out." Throughout, Rooney entertains with witty clock trivia and anecdotes alongside illuminating sketches of famous horologists. Go slowly when devouring this charming, intelligent, highly informative history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.