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Loading... Library: An Unquiet History (2003)by Matthew Battles
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No current Talk conversations about this book. uneven historical survey with an emphasis on library destructions. thorough and clear discussion of the burning of Alexandria. Also strong on Panizzi's reign at the British Library. this copy has needless rec underlining at questionable interludes. Good tidbits from history of libraries in the world. Stories of famous libraries and times and individuals involved with or affected by them, such as author Richard Wright (black) and Melville Dewey, et. al. Worthwhile. history; sort of, of libraries and library science, many sad tales of books lost A necessarily idiosyncratic, but quite fun, short history of libraries. A couple teensy errors/typos crept in, and of course anybody writing this book would have focused in different places, &c., but overall, not bad at all.
"Library: An Unquiet History" explores the creation of libraries, beginning with the clay-tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, and proceeds to the destruction of libraries, culminating in the wars of the 20th century that shamelessly wiped out entire collections. Battles examines the two competing notions of the library's mission: the library as temple for the best and most beautiful works, and the library as a place where all knowledge is brought together under one roof. He looks at the library in Islam, in the Roman Empire, and in the Middle Ages, across centuries and cultures. In this sweeping view of library history, Harvard librarian Matthew Battles provides a beautifully written story of the often-tumultuous saga of books and book-places in the world. Written first as an essay published in Harper's; this study grew into a book-length treatment, an admirable overview of the large issues facing libraries over the past couple of thousand years.
"From the clay-tablet collections of ancient Mesopotamia to the storied Alexandria libraries in Egypt, from the burned scrolls of China's Qing Dynasty to the book pyres of the Hitler Youth, from the great medieval library in Baghdad to the priceless volumes destroyed in the multi-cultural Bosnian National Library in Sarajevo, the library has been a battleground of competing notions of what books mean to us. Battles explores how, throughout its many changes, the library has served two contradictory impulses: on the one hand, the urge to exalt canons of literature, to secure and worship the best and most beautiful words; on the other, the desire to contain and control all forms of human knowledge."--BOOK JACKET. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)027.009 — Information Library and Information Sciences General Libraries; Reports, etc.LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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Text does get a bit pedantic and cumbersome in parts. Good--not great.
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