On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History Author: Nicholas A. Basbanes | Language: English | ISBN:
B00CGI3DZS | Format: PDF
On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History Description
A Best Book of the Year: Mother Jones, Bloomberg News, National Post, Kirkus Reviews
A consideration of all things paper—its invention that revolutionized human civilization; its thousand-fold uses (and misuses), proliferation, and sweeping influence on society; its makers, shapers, collectors, and pulpers—written by the admired cultural historian and author of the trilogy on all things book-related: A Gentle Madness;Patience and Fortitude (“How could any intelligent, literate person not just love this book?”—Simon Winchester); and A Splendor of Letters (“Elegant, wry, and humane”—André Bernard, New York Observer).
Nicholas Basbanes writes about paper, from its invention in China two thousand years ago to its ideal means, recording the thoughts of Islamic scholars and mathematicians that made the Middle East a center of intellectual energy; from Europe, by way of Spain in the twelfth century and Italy in the thirteenth at the time of the Renaissance, to North America and the rest of the inhabited world.
Basbanes writes about the ways in which paper has been used to record history, make laws, conduct business, and establish identities . . . He makes clear that without paper, modern hygienic practice would be unimaginable; that as currency, people will do almost anything to possess it . . . that the Industrial Revolution would never have happened without paper on which to draw designs and blueprints.
We see paper’s crucial role in the unfolding of historical events, political scandals, and sensational trials: how the American Revolution which took shape with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, began with the Stamp Act of 1765 . . . the Dreyfus Affair and the forged memorandum known as “the bordereau” . . . America’s entry into World War I with the Zimmerman Telegram . . . the Alger Hiss spy case and Whittaker Chambers’s testimony involving the notorious Pumpkin Papers . . . Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the scandal of Watergate.
Basbanes writes of his travels to get to the source of the story—to China, along the Burma Road, and to Japan, whose handmade paper, washi, is as much an expression of the human spirit as it is of craftsmanship . . . to Landover, Maryland, home of the National Security Agency and its one hundred million ultra secret documents, pulped by cryptologists and sent to be recycled as pizza boxes and egg cartons . . . to the Crane Paper mill of Dalton, Massachusetts, a seventh-generation family-owned enterprise, the exclusive supplier of paper for American currency since 1879 . . . and to the Kimberly-Clark mill in New Milford, Connecticut, manufacturer daily of one million boxes of Kleenex tissue and as many rolls of Scott kitchen towels.
Entertaining, illuminating, irresistible, a book that masterfully guides us through paper’s inseparability from human culture . . .
From the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 9078 KB
- Print Length: 449 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0307279642
- Publisher: Knopf (October 15, 2013)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00CGI3DZS
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,026 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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You have to love an author whose favorite scene from a movie (Searching for Bobby Fischer) involves a chess prodigy and a piece of paper!
Nicholas Basbanes' book about the history, uses and importance of paper includes plenty of bits of trivia like this, as well as indepth looks at the invention of paper, its uses down through the ages and its future going forward. It's all very interesting, although it took me awhile to figure out that the book's focus is somewhat split between the making of paper and the usage of paper. Because the author is just as interested in the uses of paper, his possible subject matter was obviously limitless, which explains the wide-ranging nature of the book. "If there's a common thread to be discerned in this strategy," Mr. Basbanes writes of his book, "it is what Graham Greene sagely called, in one of his novels, "the human factor."
Mr. Basbanes visits papermakers, interviews executives at successful paper companies such as Crane, Marcal and Avery, and describes the making of such specialty paper as that used for minting money, an increasingly complex job due to the sophistication of counterfeiters. He delves into the arts, examining the manuscripts of Beethoven, the canvases of Whistler, and the diaries of Da Vinci, and discusses the exacting art of architectural blueprints. He even devotes a chapter to origami and how the intricate folding of paper has advanced the science of launching space telescopes. (Who knew that there were paper-folding algorithms!
To understand this book's main focus beyond the obvious - paper and its uses - it is helpful to understand what the book is not: a chronological or traditional history. And I'm grateful for that because the author writes that the book is "about the idea of paper' as well as its vital place in world civilization. Think of how you use paper and it might be easy to list money, stamps, and notebooks. Or maybe mailing envelopes. Thank you notes.
But author Nicolas A. Basbanes goes far beyond those common items and describes in impressive detail how politics, international incidents, wars, and more were all affected by important documents, vital illustrations, and other crucial information dependent on paper. He certainly convinced me that American as well as world civilization might never have occurred in exactly the same way if not for paper. Numerous examples are given, from the Pentagon Papers to a forged memorandum crucial to the Dreyfus affair - and much more.
The scope and depth of the book is impressive and Basbanes didn't confine his research to relatively accessible locations. He didn't turn to experts he could simply interview over the phone. He also traveled widely, not only in the U.S but also internationally. In Japan he met with an actual Living National Treasure papermaker. He was persistent - and finally successful - in gaining access to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland to see where approximately one hundred million ultra-secret documents are pulped annually, often recycled into the pizza boxes and egg cartoons used by the average consumer.
This is only a very small sampling of what can be found inside this wonderful and intriguing work. I thought perhaps I'd find it dry, overly detailed, and dull.
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