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A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Holland History > Item 276
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A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot
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by Peter Burke
Sales Rank: 267703
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List Price: $34.95
$34.95
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on 8-2-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 268 pages
Published by: Polity December 27, 2000
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0745624855
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0745624853
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
'In Peter Burke's scholarly hands the notion of a social history of knowledge sheds its philosophical provocation and becomes judicious, prudent and historically rich. A gorgeously written and accessible exercise in historical synthesis.' Steven Shapin, author of "A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England" (1994) and Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
'Peter Burke is an exceptional historian: a polyglot, at home in a dozen languages; an intellectual, who is well versed in theoretical developments adjacent to history; a superb expositor, with the capacity to distil his findings in unpretentious and limpidly accessible prose; and an author of unflagging vitality, whose prolific studies in the cultural history of early modern Europe and in modern historiography constitute a formidable oeuvre He has succeeded in producing a balanced, judicious and highly stimulating work of synthesis. His book will be an indispensable starting point for years to come.' Keith Thomas, History Today
'Burke has made a significant contribution to cultural history [He] shows how knowledge was a form of exchange and how it became what we would recognize it as today. Burke's achievement in A Social History of Knowledge is to remind us that people in the past did not view knowledge in the same way as we do today.' History
Book Description
In this book Peter Burke adopts a socio-cultural approach to examine the changes in the organization of knowledge in Europe from the invention of printing to the publication of the French Encyclopédie. The book opens with an assessment of different sociologies of knowledge from Mannheim to Foucault and beyond, and goes on to discuss intellectuals as a social group and the social institutions (especially universities and academies) which encouraged or discouraged intellectual innovation. Then, in a series of separate chapters, Burke explores the geography, anthropology, politics and economics of knowledge, focusing on the role of cities, academies, states and markets in the process of gathering, classifying, spreading and sometimes concealing information. The final chapters deal with knowledge from the point of view of the individual reader, listener, viewer or consumer, including the problem of the reliability of knowledge discussed so vigorously in the seventeenth century. One of the most original features of this book is its discussion of knowledges in the plural. It centres on printed knowledge, especially academic knowledge, but it treats the history of the knowledge 'explosion' which followed the invention of printing and the discovery of the world beyond Europe as a process of exchange or negotiation between different knowledges, such as male and female, theoretical and practical, high-status and low-status, and European and non-European. Although written primarily as a contribution to social or socio-cultural history, this book will also be of interest to historians of science, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers and others in another age of information explosion.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
In 'A Social History of Knowledge,' Peter Burke provides a thorogh introduction to the evolution of knowledge throughout the Renaissance and Enlightenment. This book is a great read for anyone interested in how we developed our information apparatus. Professional Librarians and Science Studies researchers will be particularly pleased. An overview of the book is provided by the table of contents: - Professing Knowlege: The European Clerisy - Establishing Knowledge: Institutions Old and New - Locating Knowledge: Centres and Peripheries - Classifying Knowledge: Curricula, Libraries, and Encyclopaedias - Controlling Knowledge: Churches and States - Selling Knowledge: The Market and the Press - Acquiring Knowledge: The Reader's Share - Trusting and Distrusting Knowledge: A Coda Burke's writing is clear and cogent. He draws a clear thesis for each chapter and makes liberal use of references and anecdotes for support. The greatest strength of this book lies in the depth of Burke's research. The footnotes and extensive bibliography are a treasure trove of secondary and primary resources for researchers. Unfortunately, the depth also accounts for the largest weakness of 'A Social History of Knowledge.' While reading this book, it often seemed that Burke was just loosely stringing together paragraphs of quotations and anecdotes. Burke never altogether loses his reader, however, as he makes use of frequent summary paragraphs. This tempo of Burke's writing style provides for a very "skimmable" book that can frustrate those attempting to closely read the work. My other criticism of this work lies in its warm-up and cool-down. The introduction is cursory and there in no conclusion that summarizes Burke's positions. The net result of these omissions is to create a hermetic work that frustrates those attempting to establish a dialectic with (or provide a citation to) Burke's ideas. Overall, 'A Social History of Knowledge' is a valuable book for both researchers and the curious. My personal copy is well dog-eared and marked-up. I've even created an EndNote reference library based largely on Burke's citations. Therein lies the strength of this work; casual reader beware.
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A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot
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