Paper
Description
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.
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Content
- Intro
- Cover
- Title
- Contents
- Prologue: The Technological Fallacy
- Chapter 1: Being Human
- Chapter 2: The Moths that Circle a Chinese Candle
- Chapter 3: The Islamic Birth of Literacy
- Chapter 4: And Where is Xátiva?
- Chapter 5: Europe Between Two Felts
- Chapter 6: Making Words Soar
- Chapter 7: The Art of Printing
- Chapter 8: Out From Mainz
- Chapter 9: Tenochtitlán and the Blue-Eyed Devil
- Chapter 10: The Trumpet Call
- Chapter 11: Rembrandt's Discovery
- Chapter 12: The Traitorous Corruption of England
- Chapter 13: Papering Independence
- Chapter 14: Diderot's Promise
- Chapter 15: Invitation From a Wasp
- Chapter 16: Advantages in the Head
- Chapter 17: To Die Like Gentlemen
- Chapter 18: Return to Asia
- Epilogue: Change
- Appendix: Timeline
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Credits
- Index
- Copyright
