Marie Ventura
Thesis Title: Like Clockwork: The Development of the Modern Understanding of Time in Industrial Britain (1750-1914)
Supervisor: Dr Bernhard Struck
Marie studied History at the University of Rhode Island and spent a semester studying in London before earning a Masters Degree in European and American History from Providence College. She then taught as an adjunct history instructor at the Community College of Rhode Island for two years before coming to St Andrews to pursue a PhD in Modern History.
Marie's PhD project, Like Clockwork: The Development of the Modern Understanding of Time in Industrial Britain (1750-1914), centers on individual experiences with mechanically measured time during the British Industrial Revolution. It investigates how—spurred by scientific study, economic competition, and the propagation of mechanical clocks—industrial time trickled through the classes, riding trains to rural areas until, by 1914, the world largely ran on standard time, based at Greenwich Observatory, London.
The story of time and temporal perception flows through modern history like a subconscious current, always present yet rarely addressed as a topic in and of itself. Instead, it has been studied piecemeal, across a spectrum of disciplines for a variety of purposes. As a result, the history of the development of our modern understanding of time piggybacks rather than propels most studies of British society since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
This project aims to integrate the scattered story of Britain’s 19th Century temporal revolution into a cohesive analysis. It is, essentially, about finding voices; the voices of ordinary and some not-so-ordinary people caught in a transition from a world of sundials and church bells to one of train schedules and wristwatches. Each source is a lens, revealing catalysts that promoted the internalization of—and even rebellion against—abstract, measured time.
Papers/Presentations/Conferences:
“Why the Dickens?: Charles Dickens and the Perception of Time During Britain's Industrial Revolution” presented at the internal interdisciplinary workshop Doing History through Literature – Doing Literature through History: Re-visiting Disciplinary Boundaries, May, 2011
“Like Clockwork: The Changing Experience of Time in the Long Nineteenth Century,” presented at internal history PhD forum, December 2011
“Train Schedules and Factory Bells: The Changing Experience of Time During Britain's Industrial Revolution,” to be presented at St Andrews at the international, interdisciplinary workshop The Changing Experience of Time in the Long Nineteenth Century: Local, Regional, Transnational and Global Perspectives, May 2012
Organizer: International, Interdisciplinary Workshop The Changing Experience of Time in the Long Nineteenth Century: Local, Regional, Transnational and Global Perspectives, 18-19 May, 2012
Teaching (at St Andrews):
MO1008: Themes in Late Modern History, 1776-1989 (Spring: 2011, 2012)
Original Documentaries:
Hello Quonset: The Rise and Fall of Quonset Point Naval Air Station
Hadrian's Wall: Life at the Edge of an Empire