Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
A dazzling intellectual history of the West served up with verve and insight by two brilliant young historians, "Reinventing Knowledge" offers a sweeping history of the key institutions that have organized knowledge in the West from the classical period onward.
Synopsis
A dazzling intellectual history of the West served up with verve and insight by two brilliant young historians.
Synopsis
'It has the power to wrench familiar aspects of history into new and surprising shapes."Laura Miller, Salon
Synopsis
Here is an intellectual extravaganza, a dazzling history of the key institutions that have shaped and channeled knowledge in the West from the classical period to the present. Fashioned with elegance and wit, this exhilarating survey carries us through the pivotal points of institutional change and cultural transformation. It is full of memorable characters, from the flamboyant founder of the great library at Alexandria and the arrogant medieval logician Peter Abelard to the dashing global adventurer von Humboldt. In its compact history we find the perfect context for understanding the vast changes we are experiencing now in the landscape of knowledge.
About the Author
Ian F. McNeely teaches at the University of Oregon and lives in Eugene.Lisa Wolverton teaches at the University of Oregon and lives in Eugene.