Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life

by Eviatar Zerubavel

"A pathbreaking book on an important subject which, surprisingly, has been paid little attention by social scientists. Zerubavel writes with both learning and lucidity. His book is a pleasure to read."
-Peter Berger

"Others have written about the structuring of time, but few so insightfully and compellingly as Zerubavel."
-Neil J. Smelser

"This is a jewel of a book, one of the most important contributions to cultural sociology in recent years. Professor Zerubavel's easy blend of history, religion, science, politics, and social values makes this a study a delightful voyage of unexpected discovery and new awareness. It hink the title has misled some people into thinking this is a book on music or something of the sort. All the more reason to rejoice at this reissue in paperback."
-David S. Landes

"Hidden Rhythms is an exciting study of a subject that has net yet gained the attention it deserves among sociologists and other social scientists . . . Zerubavel's book has the distinctive merit to discuss earlier approaches to the study of schedules and calendars and to add a series of extremely shrewd observations and calendars to add a series of extremely shrewd observations of his own on the sociology of time. His work seems indispensable for all those social scientists who have become conscious of the central position of the temporal dimension in the life of people and their society."
-Lewis A. Coser

"Eviatar Zerubavel's Hidden Rhythms is an original and highly imaginative analysis of the role time schedule plays in social life. Continuing the distinctive focus on social time Zerubavel develops in Patterns of Time in Hospital life, he provides in Hidden Rhythms more penetrating and profound analysis of the subtle and diverse significance of time in organizing our social relationships and lives. A joy to read."
-Peter M. Blau

Genres: Sociology

201 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Zerubavel's illustrative study of the social construction of time. He describes how time is a social construct used to separate different social spheres, whether cultural, religious, or political. In the west, time is increasingly measured and treated as a commodity. Zerubavel's perspective is influenced strongly by Goffman, whom he apparently worked under as a graduate student at Berkeley. The book is a descriptive rather than analytical account of how time functions in different social contexts across history, including the Jewish Sabbath, the French Political Reform in the 19th century and the work of nurses and doctors in late 20th century America.

[Joseph Jupille · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy is awesome. Very good read if you want to think a little more about the sociology of time.