Library
Subtitle: an unquiet history
By: Matthew Battles.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 245
Subjects: Libraries -- History.; Libraries and society -- History.; Books -- History.
Description: "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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Reading the library; title: Burning Alexandria; title: The house of wisdom; title: The battle of the books; title: Books for all; title: Knowledge on fire; title: Lost in the stacks.