The Evolution of the Book
- ISBN-10
- 0195118596
- ISBN-13
- 9780195118599
- Category
- Language Arts & Disciplines
- Pages
- 180
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1998
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Frederick G. Kilgour
Description
Distinguished scholar and library systems innovator Frederick Kilgour tells a five-thousand-year story in this exciting work, a tale beginning with the invention of writing and concluding with the emerging electronic book. Calling on a lifetime of interest in the growth of information technology, Kilgour brings a fresh approach to the history of the book, emphasizing in rich, authoritative detail the successive technological advances that allowed the book to keep pace with ever-increasing needs for information. Borrowing a concept from evolutionary theory--the notion of punctuated equilibria--to structure his account, Kilgour investigates the book's three discrete historical forms--the clay tablet, papyrus roll, and codex--before turning to a fourth, still evolving form, the cyber book, a version promising swift electronic delivery of information in text, sound, and motion to anyone at any time. The clay tablet, initially employed as a content descriptor for sacks of grain, proved inadequate to the growing need for commercial and administrative records. Its successor the papyrus roll was itself succeeded by the codex, a format whose superior utility and information capacity led to sweeping changes in the management of accumulated knowledge, the pursuit of learning, and the promulgation of religion. Kilgour throughout considers closely both technological change and the role this change played in cultural transformation. His fascinating account of the modern book, from Gutenberg's invention of cast-type printing five hundred years ago to the arrival of books displayed on a computer screen, spotlights the inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs who in creating the machinery of production and dissemination enabled the book to maintain its unique cultural power over time. Deft, provocative, and accessibly written, The Evolution of the Book will captivate book lovers as well as those interested in bibliographic history, the history of writing, and the history of technology.
Get the book
Similar books
-
DE EVOLUTION
By Jeff FrankA large sophisticated telescope complex sits atop a dormant volcano in one of Earth's most remote locations.
-
Evolution's Witness: How Eyes Evolved
By Richard R. Dubielzig, Ivan R. Schwab, Charles Schobert... Robert Munn PhD, Chris Murphy DVM, Mike Murray DVM, Dan Eric Nilsson PhD, Ichiro Nishii PhD, Dieter Oesterhelt PhD, Rebecca Papendick DVM, David Pearson PhD, Simon Petersen-Jones DVM PhD, Jack Pettigrew BSc (Med), MSc, MB, BS, FRS.
-
The Evolution of Life
By Graham Bell... 217 Parus major 301, 380 Passer domesticus 219 Patiriella parvivipara 293 Paulinella 239 pea 347 pea aphid 206, 214 peacock 29 Pederpes 154 Pelagibacter 321 Pelomyxa 239 Pelycosauria 150 peppered moth 382 perch 42 Periophthalmus 262 ...
-
The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge
By Matt RidleyDrawing on fascinating evidence from science, economics, history, politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by those on high.
-
The Evolution of Technology
By George BasallaThis book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology.
-
Evolution: A View from the 21st Century
By James Alan ShapiroThis book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative.
-
The Evolution of Language
By W. Tecumseh FitchSince Darwin's theory of evolution, questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed at specialist audiences.
-
Evolution
By Stephen BaxterPraise for Evolution “Spectacular.”—The New York Times Book Review “Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about vast and final things abound in the work of Stephen Baxter. . . . [Evolution] ...
-
The Evolution of Jane
By Cathleen Schine" Boston Globe CATHLEEN SCHINE is the author of many novels, most recently The Three Weissmanns of Westport, as well as the international bestseller The Love Letter and Alice in Bed, To the Bird House, She Is Me, and The New Yorkers. "
-
Evolution: A Visual Record
By Robert ClarkEvolution: A Visual Record transports readers from the near-mystical(human ancestors) to the historic (the famous 'finches' Darwin collected on the Galapagos Islands that spurred his theory); the recently understood (the link between ...