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Redesigning Time
About the book
In 1793, the French revolutionaries decided that changing the government wasn't enough; they needed to change reality itself. To wipe out religious influence and enforce total rationality, they abolished the seven-day week, replacing it with a rigid, decimal-based calendar of ten-day weeks.
This bold experiment in cultural engineering quickly became a logistical nightmare. Citizens struggled to track rest days, international trade became mathematically chaotic, and the psychological toll of working nine consecutive days drove the working class to the brink of open rebellion.
Redesigning Time chronicles the bizarre and ultimately doomed history of the French Republican Calendar. It reveals the hubris of attempting to force mathematical perfection onto the organic rhythms of human life, showcasing a fascinating clash between ideology and human nature.
Journey through one of history's most ambitious failures. Understand how the measurement of time shapes our psychology, and why some human traditions simply cannot be optimized away by state decree.