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Chargement... Library: An Unquiet History (original 2003; édition 2015)par Matthew Battles (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreLibrary: An Unquiet History par Matthew Battles (2003)
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Like many of the reviews I write on Goodreads, this one addresses the paucity of stars I've conferred on what may well be, objectively speaking, a perfectly fine book. I read a lot of books about books and libraries, so I am naturally favorably disposed to them, and should have been toward this one.. I found Mr. Battles' prose curiously leaden and abstract, and so I struggled to finish this relatively short book. I don't doubt for a minute that other people might find this book summoning and compelling. I didn't. Not as dry as it sounds. Libraries have been built and destroyed throughout history. Libraries are centers of information and knowledge but concentrations of books seen as a threat to absolute power. Chinese Emperors to the Nazi burned books destroying great libraries because they were a threat. Thinking about it in abstract--paper and leather bindings and the words and ideas inside are viewed as such threats that they must be destroyed. Another riveting moment when during the siege of Sarajevo a professor was forced to burn his books to stay warm or cook food. What books would you burn first if you had to chose? He said some nights he went cold and hungry rather than burn a particular book. Text does get a bit pedantic and cumbersome in parts. Good--not great.
"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. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)027.009Information Library and Information Sciences General Libraries; Reports, etc.Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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