This volume explores Western views on time from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, going on to modern scientific concepts, including relativity, biological time, cosmic time, and whether there is a beginning (or an end) to time.

From these basics, they sought to understand the essential ingredients of the world. Those who could see further, those who understood that the four were just the beginning, were the last sorcerers â€" and the world's first chemists.

Character sketches of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jay, Madison, and Hamilton emphasize their reasons for turning against Britain and their prominence in the American Revolution.

This intriguing investigation of an historically embedded cultural struggle over the possession of America's "collective memory" has significant implications for how we interpret cultural conflict in past, present, and future America.