Book of the Week: Paper by Mark Kurlansky

By
Paper:  Paging Through History

By Mark Kurlansky

 Call number:  TS 1090 .K87 2016

Review from the New York Times

Publisher's description:  From the New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today’s world. 

Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. One has only to look at history’s greatest press run, which produced 6.5 billion copies of Máo zhuxí yulu, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Zedong)―which doesn’t include editions in 37 foreign languages and in braille―to appreciate the range and influence of a single publication, in paper. Or take the fact that one of history’s most revered artists, Leonardo da Vinci, left behind only 15 paintings but 4,000 works on paper. And though the colonies were at the time calling for a boycott of all British goods, the one exception they made speaks to the essentiality of the material; they penned the Declaration of Independence on British paper.

Now, amid discussion of “going paperless”―and as speculation about the effects of a digitally dependent society grows rampant―we’ve come to a world-historic juncture. Thousands of years ago, Socrates and Plato warned that written language would be the end of “true knowledge,” replacing the need to exercise memory and think through complex questions. Similar arguments were made about the switch from handwritten to printed books, and today about the role of computer technology. By tracing paper’s evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay. Paper will be the commodity history that guides us forward in the twenty-first century and illuminates our times.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fast Access to Scholarly Articles on Popular Websites

By
Image
What is LibKey Nomad? LibKey Nomad is a free browser extension that quickly connects you with full text resources from the UWSP Libraries as you research on the web. It works with Wikipedia, PubMed, and hundreds of publisher websites.  If the Libraries do not have the full text, LibKey Nomad will link you to Search@UW where you can make an InterLibrary Loan request. To get started: take a look at our guide for more information visit Download LibKey Nomad select your browser follow the prompts to install, selecting “University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point” as your organization.  LibKey Nomad connects you to resources while preserving your privacy. No personal account is needed, and LibKey Nomad does not track users or store your ID after you close your browser. 
Read more

Book of the Week: One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds By Raymond Baker

By
Image
One Islam, M any Muslim W orlds : S pirituality, I dentity, and R esistance A cross Islamic L ands By Raymond William Baker Call Number:  BP 161.3 B344 2015 Review from the journal Foreign Affairs Publisher's Description:   By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah , particularly its Arab heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet, precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability, Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American, homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and powerful transnational force and what imp...
Read more

Summer Hours for UWSP Libraries

By
Image
Summer Hours: Starting May 18th, the UWSP Libraries will operate on summer hours. Please check our summer hours for your study and research needs. Closures due to Scheduled Power Outages: Stevens Point Library (CCC 130 & 104): Closed Thursday, May 23rd. University Archives (TNR 110): Closed Wednesday, May 22nd, and Thursday, May 23rd. Please plan your visits accordingly, and we hope to see you over the summer!
Read more