Reinventing knowledge : from Alexandria to the Internet

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Title:

Author:

McNeely, Ian F., 1971-

ISBN:

9780393065060

9780393337716

Personal Author:

McNeely, Ian F., 1971-

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : W. W. Norton, c2008.

Physical Description:

xxii, 318 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

The library -- The monastery -- The university -- The republic of letters -- The disciplines -- The laboratory.

Abstract:

"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.

Subject Term:

Intellectual life -- History.

Learning and scholarship -- History.

Civilization, Western -- History.

Civilization, Modern -- History.

Added Author:

Wolverton, Lisa.

Electronic Access:

Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0817/2008019100.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025448826	909 M169R 2008	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Here is an intellectual entertainment, a sweeping history of the key institutions that have organized knowledge in the West from the classical period onward. With elegance and wit, this exhilarating history alights at the pivotal points of cultural transformation. The motivating question throughout: How does history help us understand the vast changes we are now experiencing in the landscape of knowledge?Beginning in Alexandria and its great center of Hellenistic learning and imperial power, we then see the monastery in the wilderness of a collapsed civilization, the rambunctious universities of the late medieval cities, and the thick social networks of the Enlightenment republic of letters. The development of science and the laboratory as a dominant knowledge institution brings us to the present, seeking patterns in the new digital networks of knowledge.Full of memorable characters, this fresh history succeeds in restoring the strangeness and the significance of the past.