A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot
'In Peter Burke's scholarly hands the notion of a social history of knowledge sheds its philosophical provocation and becomes judicious, prudent and historically rich. A beautifully written and accessible exercise in historical synthesis.'Steven Shapin, author of "A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England" (1994) and Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego'Peter Burke is an exceptional historian: a polyglot, at home in a dozen languages; an intellectual, who is well versed in theoretical developments adjacent to history; a superb expositor, with the capacity to distil his findings in unpretentious and limpidly accessible prose; and an author of unflagging vitality, whose prolific studies in the cultural history of early modern Europe and in modern historiography constitute a formidableoeuvre... He has succeeded in producing a balanced, judicious and highly stimulating work of synthesis. His book will be an indispensable starting point for years to come.'Keith Thomas, History Today'Burke has made a significant contribution to cultural history ... [He] shows how knowledge was a form of exchange and how it became what we would recognize it as today. Burke's achievement in A Social History of Knowledge is to remind us that people in the past did not view knowledge in the same way as we do today.'History