author : Stephen Jay Gould

With its small pages and large, widely spaced type, Gould has produced more a long pamphlet than a book, a small island of sanity in a vast sea of millennial madness. (And yes, he points out that 'millennium' really does have two 'n's.) He explores three questions:

• What is the Millennium? How has it changed from a religious question about a period of a thousand years from an arbitrary starting point, to a calendrical question about the start of the n-thousandth year. And a look at past millennial madnesses.
• When is the Millennium -- 2000 or 2001? (The question arises because there was no year zero.) The 20th century officially started in 1901, yet 2000 is the clear winner this time, so what has changed?
• Why are we interested in calendrical events at all?

All this in his usual sane, clear style -- although rather more religion than I might have liked -- and fortunately very little about baseball!