Paper: Paging Through History
by Kurlansky, Mark
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0393239616
- ISBN 13
- 9780393239614
- Seller
-
Santa Barbara, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016. xx, 389 pages, illustrations; 25 cm. Tight, clean copy. Stated First Edition. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. A fine copy of the first printing. "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 Quotations from Chairman Mao (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." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Prologue: The technological fallacy; Being human; The moths that circle a Chinese candle; The Islamic birth of literacy; And where is Xa tiva?; Europe between two felts; Making words soar; The art of printing; Out from Mainz; Tenochtitla n and the blue-eyed devil; The trumpet call; Rembrandt's discovery; The traitorous corruption of England; Papering independence; Diderot's promise; Invitation from a wasp; Advantages in the head; To die like a gentleman; Return to Asia; Epilogue: change; Appendix: Timeline.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.
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Details
- Bookseller
- LEFT COAST BOOKS (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 104469
- Title
- Paper: Paging Through History
- Author
- Kurlansky, Mark
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Edition
- 1st
- ISBN 10
- 0393239616
- ISBN 13
- 9780393239614
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York and London
- Date Published
- 2016
- Size
- 8vo
- Keywords
- COLLECTIBLE
- Bookseller catalogs
- XXX / COLLECTIBLES; Media / Printmaking; Media / Paper;
Terms of Sale
LEFT COAST BOOKS
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About the Seller
LEFT COAST BOOKS
Biblio member since 2016
Santa Barbara, California
About LEFT COAST BOOKS
Established in Santa Barbara, California, in 2004, Left Coast Books specializes in ART BOOKS, offering thousands of titles on painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, design, photography, film, video, and performance art. We also sell classics, literature, history, and a broad variety of useful academic books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...