"This survey carries us through the pivotal points of institutional change and cultural transformation from the classical period to the present day. In its compact history we find the perfect context for understanding the vast changes that we are experiencing now in the landscape of knowledge." "The authors begin by drawing us into the public arenas of democratic Athens, where knowledge took the form of competitive speech and writing was considered an inferior path to truth. Through Aristotle and his student Alexander, the shift to knowledge as written and inclusive animated the great center of Hellenistic learning at Alexandria." "In the wilderness left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the monastery arose as the key knowledge institution. Organized with an inspired attention to time and task, the monastery managed to preserve the written culture of the ancient past and create new frameworks for understanding and structuring time.

The thick correspondence networks of the Republic of Letters broadened participation in the world of knowledge, even as it was transformed by the discoveries of the New World. With the development of science and the laboratory as a dominant knowledge institution in the modern period, we arrive at our present position, searching for direction amid the new democracy and commerce of knowledge on the Web."--BOOK JACKET.