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Loading... Library: An Unquiet History (2003)by Matthew Battles
  
No current Talk conversations about this book. Boring. Not the book I expected it to be. Could not get through the first chapter.  booklover3258 | Oct 14, 2018 |  Library: An Unquiet History was a fun book to read, as it jumps from one vignette to the next, highlighting times of turbulence and uncertainty in libraries' history, from the relatively light "Battle of the Books" of Jonathan Swift's time, to the darker episodes of systematic library destruction during World War II and beyond. Battles illustrates the truth of Borge's statement, "the library is unlimited and cyclical" as libraries fall and decay and are rebuilt throughout the ages. He makes these stories relevant by highlighting the fact that the fear for the modern library--that it will be rendered obsolete by the digital era--is a fear echoed earlier in history, as various technological advances were made. The only thing I'd fault is that sometimes the stories don't seem to relate to one another, and there are large jumps across time and topic that slightly lack coherency. A good, light read on library history. (  )1  renardkitsune | May 16, 2017 | A whimsical and articulate chronicle of the history of libraries, particularly in the western society, Battles' book is a treat for librarians and readers of all kinds. (  ) Birdo82 | Jan 15, 2017 | This is a small book, but don't be deceived by its size. The pages are crammed full of historical, anthropological, biographical, and pictorial information about books, bookstores, libraries, and the people who influenced them. If you enjoy and appreciate libraries and bookstores, and/or a bibliophile, you'll definitely enjoy this book. ( )1 BooksForYears | Apr 1, 2016 | Another dry non-fiction offering. I'm a librarian, and I am interested in the history of libraries, but TMI is just TMI...let's keep it interesting. (  ) Auntie-Nanuuq | Jan 18, 2016 |
 "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.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0393325644, Paperback)"Splendidly articulate, informative and provoking....A book to be savored and gone back to."—Baltimore Sun On the survival and destruction of knowledge, from Alexandria to the Internet. Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Matthew Battles, a rare books librarian and a gifted narrator, takes us on a spirited foray from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library, from socialist reading rooms and rural home libraries to the Information Age.He explores how libraries are built and how they are destroyed, from the decay of the great Alexandrian library to scroll burnings in ancient China to the destruction of Aztec books by the Spanish—and in our own time, the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia. Encyclopedic in its breadth and novelistic in its telling, this volume will occupy a treasured place on the bookshelf next to Baker's Double Fold, Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, Manguel's A History of Reading, and Winchester's The Professor and the Madman. (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:21:59 -0400) Traces the evolution of the library through the centuries. |
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