Todd D. Rakoff is Byrne Professor of Administrative Law, Harvard University.
A first-ever book about the law's regulation of time. Rakoff
investigates a number of for-instances--such as the creation of
time zones, Sunday closing laws, the length of the work week,
school attendance--and argues that the weakening regulation of time
has lessened communal solidarity and made more elusive the goal of
a balanced life.
*Harvard Magazine*
What do blue laws, daylight savings time, the 40-hour work week,
and the compulsory school year have in common? In A Time for Every
Purpose Todd Rakoff argues that this patchwork of laws shapes how
we think about time. Unfortunately, he says, they no longer do a
very good job of ensuring people can balance their work and
personal lives. As Rakoff shows in this curious little book, the
modern construction of time doesn't have a very long
history...Offering realistic suggestions for fixing these time
imbalances proves more difficult than merely detailing the problem.
Rakoff reasonably says the law must create more mechanisms to
balance work time and other responsibilities.
*Christian Science Monitor*
Todd Rakoff argues that temporal "rhythms" like daylight savings
time are important for society. Whether by cultural tradition or by
law, establishing boundaries to activities, such as the five-day
work week vs. the weekend, or the nine-month school year allowed by
summer vacation, helps people give structure and meaning to their
lives...Rakoff has no quarrels with basic rules such as time zones,
he warns the reader that it's a mistake to let "dominant social
forces," namely big business, always determine how time is
allocated.
*Dallas Morning News*
Though we usually take time schedules, calendars, and even how we
measure time as givens, Rakoff explores the variety of social
choices involved in regulating time--and the risk that some choices
will no longer be available, as 24/7 replaces the rhythms
separating work and home, week and weekend, and secular and
religious time. Crucially, this illuminating and original book
demonstrates that the problem with time is not that there is not
enough of it; but rather that there are not enough structures to
permit coordination with others. The book thereby reveals the deep
truth that collective rules, rather than individual license,
construct the conditions of freedom. Make time to read it!
*Martha Minow, author of Between Vengeance and Forgiveness:
Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence*
Examining the intricate relations between the laws of nature and
society, A Time for Every Purpose helps shed some light on the
legal (and therefore inevitably conventional) underpinnings of the
way we structure time. A most welcome contribution of legal
scholarship to the sociology of time.
*Eviatar Zerubavel, author of The Seven-Day Circle: The History
and Meaning of the Week and Time Maps: The Social Shape of
the Past*
Rakoff's argument makes sense. His book is a significant
contribution to our understanding of community and solidarity in
the modern world.
*Edward L. Rubin, University of Pennsylvania Law School*
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