Levine, Robert : California State University-Fresno

Robert Levine, Ph.D., is professor in the psychology department at California State University, Fresno, where he has received many awards for his teaching and research. He has been a visiting professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil, at Sapporo Medical University in Japan, and at Stockholm University in Sweden. He has published articles in Psychology Today, Discover, and American Scientist and has appeared on ABC's World News Tonight, Dateline, NBC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and All Things Considered.

"An elegant gem.... Levine takes us behind the lens of the sensitive observer's eye to make us aware of the psychology of time as perhaps the greatest of human inventions. He combines brilliant observations, original field experiments, and wide ranging scholarship to generate an original view of how subjective time and human functioning mesh or collide. Geography of Time is a worthwhile detour: take it and value its lessons well."

--Philip Zimbardo, author of Psychology and Life

"What a timely book! An empirically trained social psychologist casts an informed eye across the cross-cultural literature on how people in various parts of the globe structure their 24 hours each day. The 'silent language' of time is articulated in this pacey, humorous assessment of how this basic dimension of our lives affects us all. Scholarly but fun, informative but colorful. Take time to read this book."

--Michael Harris Bond, Chinese University of Hong Kong

"Our treatment of time turns out to be a masterful key that opens a fantastic array of doors into numerous intellectual, social, cultural, and many other-worldly areas."

--Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule

"Anyone who picks up this book believing that time is simply something that is measured by that little gadget on your wrist is in for a major revelation and a mind-expanding experience (as well as a good 'time.' Levine is to be congratulated; truly, an excellent piece of work."

--Elliott Aronson, University of California at Santa Cruz

"Levine shows with grace, wit, and scholarship how culture-bound our sense of time really is. A Geography of Time has altered (for the better) my own attitude toward time. This book should make a major contribution to breaking the shackles of time pressure that bind us all."

--Ralph Keyes, author of Timelock

"Packed with interesting observations and information."

--Anthony Storr, Washington Times

Perseus Books Group Web Site, March, 2000

In this engaging and spirited book, eminent social psychologist Robert Levine asks us to explore a dimension of our experience that we take for granted-our perception of time. When we travel to a different country, or even a different city in the United States, we assume that a certain amount of cultural adjustment will be required, whether it's getting used to new food or negotiating a foreign language, adapting to a different standard of living or another currency. In fact, what contributes most to our sense of disorientation is having to adapt to another culture's sense of time. Levine, who has devoted his career to studying time and the pace of life, takes us on an enchanting tour of time through the ages and around the world. As he recounts his unique experiences with humor and deep insight, we travel with him to Brazil, where to be three hours late is perfectly acceptable, and to Japan, where he finds a sense of the long-term that is unheard of in the West. We visit communities in the United States and find that population size affects the pace of life-and even the pace of walking. We travel back in time to ancient Greece to examine early clocks and sundials, then move forward through the centuries to the beginnings of "clock time" during the Industrial Revolution. We learn that there are places in the world today where people still live according to "nature time," the rhythm of the sun and the seasons, and "event time," the structuring of time around happenings(when you want to make a late appointment in Burundi, you say, "I'll see you when the cows come in").

Levine raises some fascinating questions. How do we use our time? Are we being ruled by the clock? What is this doing to our cities? To our relationships? To our own bodies and psyches? Are there decisions we have made without conscious choice? Alternative tempos we might prefer? Perhaps, Levine argues, our goal should be to try to live in a "multitemporal" society, one in which we learn to move back and forth among nature time, event time, and clock time. In other words, each of us must chart our own geography of time. If we can do that, we will have achieved temporal prosperity.

Preface: Time Talks with an Accent
Social Time: The Heartbeat Of Culture
Tempo: The Speed of Life
Duration: The Psychological Clock
A Brief History of Clock Time
Living on Event Time
Time and Power: The Rules of the Waiting Game
Fast, Slow, And The Quality Of Life
Where Is Life Fastest?
Health, Wealth, Happiness, and Charity
Japan's Contradiction
Changing Pace
Time Literacy: Learning the Secret Language
Minding Your Time, Timing Your Mind