Library: An Unquiet History Reviews

I enjoyed this engaging book about libraries, books, writing and knowledge. I liked learning about how writing on bamboo stalks influenced the look of Asian writing and how Antonio Panizzi changed the card catalog "...from an inventory to an instrument of discovery" [p. 130].

Battles shares the history of libraries, since "books" were made of argyle. Archeology proves us that even them, systems were used to archive the knowledge they had and shared in those argyle "books". Chinese stones, papyrus, parchment, Library of Alexandria. Pride, fire, war, theft. Monasteries libraries, college libraries, private libraries, national libraries. The Gutenberg press. Facts and speculation are gracefully combined in these book to share a small part of library history, showing all that without those libraries, none of what we have today would be possible to exist.