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Whatever Happened To The Metric System?: How America Became The Last Country On Earth To Keep Its Feet (2014)

by John Bemelmans Marciano(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1608194752 (ISBN13: 9781608194759)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: While the title of the book makes it seem like it primarily deals with the U.S. and the Metric system, it really covers quite a bit of the history of global weights and measures, but it does so essentially from the start of the U.S. as a nation and uses the U.S. as the central framing device. The majority of the book deals with the history before the turn of the last century, and does so very well, which leaves me wanting a little more when Marciano gets in and through the 20th and start of the 21st century so quickly. Still, this is an interesting read and one that is written in a way that keeps the reader engaged. It has further stoked my interest in the subject and in some of the key figures involved in the various histories, which is about all one can ask of such a boo... morek. If you are into this kind of history, this is a solid book that is worth your time, regardless of how you measure that time.
review 2: This book is more than the title promises. The story includes money, calendars, and time as well as metric measurements, with a lot of interesting historical facts on these topics. It begins in 1982 with the Reagan budget cutting the US Metric Board. Then, it goes back to the 1700's and Jefferson's efforts to change the monetary system to use decimal fractions. Money is part of the measurement system because it was originally based on the weight of the coins. The book spends some time discussing the French revolution, during which the metric system first showed its head. Washington's first address stated that "uniformity in the Currency, Weights, and Measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to." I found the section of the history of telling time, including the problem of choosing the prime meridian in 1884 particularly interesting. less

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