Ben Waber reviewed The Week by David M. Henkin
An Enlightening Dive Into How the Weekly Rhythm Became Central
5 stars
This book mostly covers the emergence of the 7-day week as one of the central societal organizing forces in the world, focusing on the period from the late 1500s to the mid 20th century. As one of the most arbitrary time intervals that has now become an unquestioned institution, Henkin shows how the week was fundamentally unimportant until dogmatic North American colonists, who insisted on Sunday as a day of prayer and rest, started a movement that eventually snowballed into the modern concept of the week. Other week-like time systems in other parts of the world are briefly treated towards the end of the book, although I wish those sections were expanded. Also fascinating were Soviet experiments with a 5-day week and early 20th century drives for different calendar systems. Highly recommend