From the New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today’s world. Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. By tracing paper’s evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay. Paper will be the commodity history that guides us forward in the twenty-first century and illuminates our times. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9780393353709 Media Type: Paperback(Reprint) Publisher: Norton W. W. & Company Inc. Publication Date: 05-23-2017 Pages: 416 Product Dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)About the Author Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times best-selling author of twenty-nine books and a former foreign correspondent for The International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives in New York City.Table of Contents Table of Contents Prologue: The Technological Fallacy xiii Chapter 1 Being Human 1 Chapter 2 The Moths that Circle a Chinese Candle 22 Chapter 3 The Islamic Birth of Literacy 48 Chapter 4 And Where is Xátiva? 66 Chapter 5 Europe Between Two Felts 76 Chapter 6 Making Words Soar 98 Chapter 7 The Art of Printing 115 Chapter 8 Out from Mainz 132 Chapter 9 Tenochtitlán and the Blue-Eyed Devil 147 Chapter 10 The Trumpet Call 162 Chapter 11 Rembrandt’s Discovery 167 Chapter 12 The Traitorous Corruption of England 179 Chapter 13 Papering Independence 205 Chapter 14 Diderot’s Promise 226 Chapter 15 Invitation from a Wasp 245 Chapter 16 Advantages in the Head 256 Chapter 17 To Die Like Gentlemen 275 Chapter 18 Return to Asia 293 Epilogue: Change 323 Appendix: Timeline 337 Acknowledgments 345 Bibliography 347 Index 355
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