Library – An Unquiet History - Softcover

Battles, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393351459 ISBN 13: 9780393351453

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015

Synopsis

Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard MetaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new epilogue elucidates the preservation of knowledge amid the creative destruction of twenty-first century technology.

About this title

Review:

Elegantly written....A great read, flowing over many time periods and geographic regions.

Battles turns an all-seeing telescope on the most spectacular galaxy in our intellectual heavens--that magnificent constellation of books we call a library--and brings into focus the brightest stars and blackest holes in its dynamic history.--Richard Lederer, author of A Man of My Words

Gifted and eloquent, Battles has written a pertinent book, full of insight and humanity.--Nicholas Basbanes, author of On Paper

Huge in scope...engaging.

Blow[s] the dust off our stodgy, conventional conception of the library to reveal the living heart of culture.

Battles' book is an obvious choice for bibliophiles. But the author's evident enthusiasm for his subject just might fan into flame any passion for books and libraries that smolders in the heart of the general reader, too.

Splendidly articulate, informative and provoking...sweeping in its inclusiveness, extraordinarily brisk in narrative vigor, and consistently lively--utterly trumping the cliches of the mustiness of libraries and the dreariness of librarians. A book among books, to be savored and gone back to.--Michael Packenham

This is an idiosyncratic and brave book...like many other fine works of literature, [it] is not unlike a library.

Fascinating...At its heart, the book is above all a celebration of mankind's ceaseless quest to quench curiosity and organize knowledge--a quest all the more timely, yet more overwhelming, in an era when our collective 'library' has swelled into the world wide web, the largest information system humanity has ever known.--Maria Popova, author of Figuring

Book Description:

A history of the library that speaks volumes.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0393351459
• ISBN 13: 9780393351453
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272