The reform of time. Magic and modernity

The author argues that the nineteenth-century marginalisation of ´superstition´ is part of a social history of time management. Perkins summarises the development of a swnse of British ttemporal superiority and tackles enduring questions of colonialisation and class from the unusual angle of beliefs about time. She relates differing concepts of time to colonial discourse, particularly in relation to gypsies and Australian Aborigines, and to the development of national identity in calendar illustrations. She surveys technologiacal developments in the calculation of time, and assesses the role of popular beliefs in astrology, books of fate, and prophetic dreaming.