Information: A Historical Companion

by Ann Blair (Editor), Paul Duguid (Editor), Anja-Silvia Goeing (Editor), Anthony Grafton (Editor)

Overview

A landmark history that traces the creation, management, and sharing of information through six centuries

Thanks to modern technological advances, we now enjoy seemingly unlimited access to information. Yet how did information become so central to our everyday lives, and how did its processing and storage make our data-driven era possible? This volume is the first to consider these questions in comprehensive detail, tracing the global emergence of information practices, technologies, and more, from the premodern era to the present. With entries spanning archivists to algorithms and scribes to surveilling, this is the ultimate reference on how information has shaped and been shaped by societies.

Written by an international team of experts, the book's inspired and original long- and short-form contributions reconstruct the rise of human approaches to creating, managing, and sharing facts and knowledge. Thirteen full-length chapters discuss the role of information in pivotal epochs and regions, with chief emphasis on Europe and North America, but also substantive treatment of other parts of the world as well as current global interconnections. More than 100 alphabetical entries follow, focusing on specific tools, methods, and concepts—from ancient coins to the office memo, and censorship to plagiarism. The result is a wide-ranging, deeply immersive collection that will appeal to anyone drawn to the story behind our modern mania for an informed existence.

• Tells the story of information’s rise from 1450 through to today
• Covers a range of eras and regions, including the medieval Islamic world, late imperial East Asia, early modern and modern Europe, and modern North America
• Includes 100 concise articles on wide-ranging topics:

Concepts: data, intellectual property, privacy

Formats and genres: books, databases, maps, newspapers, scrolls and rolls, social media

People: archivists, diplomats and spies, readers, secretaries, teachers

Practices: censorship, forecasting, learning, political reporting, translating

Processes: digitization, quantification, storage and search

Systems: bureaucracy, platforms, telecommunications

Technologies: cameras, computers, lithography

• Provides an informative glossary, suggested further reading (a short bibliography accompanies each entry), and a detailed index
• Written by an international team of notable contributors, including Jeremy Adelman, Lorraine Daston, Devin Fitzgerald, John-Paul Ghobrial, Lisa Gitelman, Earle Havens, Randolph C. Head, Niv Horesh, Sarah Igo, Richard R. John, Lauren Kassell, Pamela Long, Erin McGuirl, David McKitterick, Elias Muhanna, Thomas S. Mullaney, Carla Nappi, Craig Robertson, Daniel Rosenberg, Neil Safier, Haun Saussy, Will Slauter, Jacob Soll, Heidi Tworek, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Alexandra Walsham, and many more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691179544
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Pages:	904
Sales rank:	680,132
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 2.30(d)

About the Author

Ann Blair is the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University. Paul Duguid is an adjunct full professor in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. Anja-Silvia Goeing is professor of history of education at the University of Zurich and an associate in history at Harvard University. Twitter @debatesovert Anthony Grafton is the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University. Twitter @scaliger

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This collection of breathtakingly wide-ranging essays reveals the history of the world to be a history of information. From the passport to the postmark, from the coin to the khipu, its varied case-studies crosscut to build a multilayered account of the past that will transform our understanding of the present. This is a book that will be read, as we say, for information, but it’s also that rare reference book that demands to be dipped into for pleasure, and devoured cover to cover."—Leah Price, author of What We Talk about When We Talk about Books

"Until now, information studies in the humanities lacked a definitive account of the range of its interests, investments, and possibilities. Information achieves this in the best possible terms: the examples multiply and interact, and a rich universe of topics emerges in their wake. No other book does such important work."—Eric Hayot, author of On Literary Worlds

"Understanding the current information age requires a better sense of what information was, what it did, and how it functioned in the past across cultures and contexts. This brilliant book achieves this and so much more, and it does so with scholarly rigor, imagination, and clear, forceful writing. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop."—Chad Wellmon, author of Organizing Enlightenment

Editorial Reviews

"I did not want it to end. . . . It has thrown my personal information system out of equilibrium and reminded me how many things I still have to learn about my own field of study. There are not too many books I have read to the end and opened back to the introduction before setting it down. Well done. Information: A Historical Companion answers questions I did not know I had."—-Jodi Kearns, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology

"This book is an essential work of reference accessible to historians and scholars across the humanities and social sciences. A great deal of good work went into its development, and the results reward it"—-James W. Cortada, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Ultimately, Information offers an informative, and indeed fresh, perspective on a phenomenon that, historically and contemporaneously, has been so central to our lives, technologies, and societies. While expertly summarizing existing literature across diverse disciplines, it reveals many exciting convergences between hitherto disparate approaches and creates compelling connections between technology, information, and history."—-Marc Kosciejew, Technology and Culture

"Surely the definitive work on the overall subject."—-David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

"Rollicking"—-N.J. Enfield, Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2021

Information originates from a wide range of resources. Exploring ways in which information shapes and has been shaped by human society, Blair (Harvard Univ.), Paul Duguid (Sch. of Information at the Univ. of California, Berkeley), Anja-Silvia Goeing (history, Harvard Univ.), and Anthony Grafton (history, Princeton Univ.) illustrate that information dissemination has existed throughout the world for centuries. Taking a historical approach to information sources and methods, the editors and 107 international scholars trace the world's information creation, management, technology, institutions, sharing, and practices through the centuries. The work offers a chronological view of various information processes from the 1400s through the present day, then provides 101 shorter stand-alone articles on topics ranging from accounting, algorithms, and intellectual property to censorship, libraries and catalogues, privacy, and social media. The thematic list identifies concepts, formats, genres, objects, people, practices, processes, systems, and technologies. A glossary offers succinct definitions, and the detailed index enables swift access to specific subjects. Other books on information practices focus on the practical side, such as computer algorithms for search engines or identifying disinformation and misinformation; this one, with its far more sprawling approach, stands out from the crowd. Black-and-white illustrations, graphs, and charts enhance the text. VERDICT A fascinating multidisciplinary essay collection that will appeal to information history junkies as well as history, journalism, and library science students.—Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX

Library Journal