Chapter 1 is an overview of the book. It points out the degree to which deadlines and waiting periods structure politics and directs readers' attention to the fact that the insertion of temporal variables into politics ought not be taken for granted. It reviews the fact that deadlines are single moments in time with outsized importance for people who need the political status and rights that can be contingent on when one is born or when one makes a claim rather than just where one is, or who one is. It discusses waiting periods and how durations of time come to have value as well as why time is a good proxy for characteristics, processes, relationships and other intangibles that are important in democratic politics. Time’s value allows it to help make incommensurable goods commensurable. However, when similarly situated persons’ time is valued differently, an important form of political injustice is imposed on people whose time is devalued. Following this overview of the book, Chapter 1 reviews salient contributions to thought on time and politics with attention to the ways in which deadlines and duration have not been subjected to normative analysis. Authors discussed include: Skowronek, Pocock, Durkheim, Habermas, Landes, Goodin, Pierson, among others.