Library

A Fragile History

by ,

528 pages

English language

Published Dec. 6, 2021 by Basic Books.

ISBN:
978-1-5416-0077-5
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(8 reviews)

Perfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age.

Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings—the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes—and remakes—the …

5 editions

reviewed Library by Andrew Pettegree

A Comprehensive History of Written Texts, Collections, and the Emergence of Libraries

This book traces the evolution of written text, the development of commercial activity around it, and the eventual (extremely recent) emergence of modern libraries. For those unfamiliar with the book industry these chapters will be especially illuminating, and the dominance of a subscription model for libraries until quite recently was fascinating. The book is more Western-focused than I'd like, with strangely little coverage of libraries under the Ottoman Empire or in Asia more broadly. Overall, however, this is an incredible view into the forces that led to the creation of modern libraries and just how fragile those institutions can be. Highly recommend.

reviewed Library by Andrew Pettegree

Review of 'Library' on 'Goodreads'

This book covers the evolution of the Library from the status symbol of the nobility, through professional personal libraries of scholars and merchants, subscription libraries and all the way to the public good that they are today, with additional insights of the value different people place on them. I find it quite surprising just how late fiction was allowed into the hallowed halls of libraries.

The book's subtitle "A Fragile History" is especially poignant. The author really managed to show the difficulty of preserving books, especially entire collections through the ages. With all of the neglect, theft, war, elitism and censorship it is surprising there are any books older than 100 years left in the world. By the end I got a real sense of the libraries perseverance and the herculean effort needed to preserve them.

Considering that we are all book lovers on this website I can recommend this …

reviewed Library by Andrew Pettegree

Review of 'Library' on 'Goodreads'

Quick impressions: Overall, this is an interesting but also dense book. Some chapters can be a bit slow. It is an ambitious work that strives to cover a lot of ground, and it does so in a relatively coherent way.

(Full review with reading notes on my blog soon.)

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