The Week

“[Henkin] scours American literature, diaries, periodicals, menus and other ephemera from as far back as the seventeenth century to unearth fascinating evidence of the stickiness of the seven-day cycle.”—Melissa Holbrook Pierson, Wall Street Journal “[Henkin’s] new book shows how the week came to rule the world.”—The Economist “Henkin makes clear that there is no obvious reason for the existence of the week, much less for its omnipresence in modern societies.”—Anthony Grafton, London Review of Books “This book grounds a great historical fact—the persistence of the seven-day week—in intimate histories of the consciousness of time in the past. Proust would be pleased. So will the general readers.”—Thomas Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead “Given today’s high-wattage lifestyle, the week, among other traditional temporal rhythms, stands endangered as a barrier against the banality of quotidian life. The implications of Henkin’s powerful insights are bracing.”—A. Roger Ekirch, author of At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past “David Henkin works wizardry in the archives to give us the surprising story behind the week’s rhythms. Preachers, workers, brides and school children have all felt the beat of the week. Henkin reminds us what we miss when our weekly rhythms are lost in a plague year or battered by a timeless internet.”—Ann Fabian, author of The Skull Collectors