Zero Degrees: Geographies of the Prime Meridian

My notes

A book devoted to a question that seems simple: how did Greenwich become the world's prime meridian? Withers reconstructs a period when dozens of meridians coexisted, used by different countries, observatories, navigators and cartographers. He explains how Greenwich gradually gained ground through nautical charts, almanacs, chronometers and the weight of British navigation. He then moves into the scientific congresses, national rivalries and the 1884 Washington conference. The most interesting part is seeing that the choice of Greenwich did not settle everything overnight. Countries adopted the meridian, standard time and the new astronomical day at different moments and through different routes. It is an academic, technical and fairly dense book. I would recommend it only if the subject interests you a great deal. It was perfect for me: I took ideas, references and several stories for The Longest Year in the World, as well as a much less simplified view of how we arrived at the system we use today.