http://bit.ly/9U2pzBThe Case For Books, Past, Present and FutureRenowned historian Robert Darnton - a pioneering scholar in the history of the book, and a leading voice in the debate about the digital future of books and knowledge - distills his experience and insight. The era of the book as the unrivalled source and vehicle for knowledge is coming to an end. Digitization makes the physical properties of books disposable; e-book readers and mobile phones render them portable and accessible almost everywhere. Google and Amazon could command near monopolistic positions as sellers and dispensers of digital information relatively unfiltered by the traditional caucus of book experts: editors, proof-readers, expert retailers. This is the moment when books could both spring free of the limitations of production processes that have constrained them for 500 years and could also shatter into smithereens, shards of scattered knowledge no longer bound and made meaningful by context, cover and care.
About the author:Robert Darnton (born May 10, 1939) is an American cultural historian, recognized as a leading expert on eighteenth-century France.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1960, attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, and earned a Ph.D. (D. Phil.) in history from Oxford in 1964, where he studied with Richard Cobb, among others. He worked as reporter at The New York Times from 1964 to 1965. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, and was President of the American Historical Association in 1999.
He joined the Princeton University faculty in 1968, and was Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History. Darnton is a pioneer in the field of the history of the book. He currently is writing about electronic publishing. He is founder of the Gutenberg-e program, sponsored by Mellon Foundation.
His brother is the retired New York Times editor and author John Darnton, and his father was the war correspondent Byron Darnton.
About the author:Robert Darnton (born May 10, 1939) is an American cultural historian, recognized as a leading expert on eighteenth-century France.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1960, attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, and earned a Ph.D. (D. Phil.) in history from Oxford in 1964, where he studied with Richard Cobb, among others. He worked as reporter at The New York Times from 1964 to 1965. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, and was President of the American Historical Association in 1999.
He joined the Princeton University faculty in 1968, and was Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History. Darnton is a pioneer in the field of the history of the book. He currently is writing about electronic publishing. He is founder of the Gutenberg-e program, sponsored by Mellon Foundation.
His brother is the retired New York Times editor and author John Darnton, and his father was the war correspondent Byron Darnton.
