{"product_id":"index-a-history-of-the-a-bookish-adventure-from-medieval-manuscripts-to-the-digital-age","title":"Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age","description":"A New York Times Notable Book and Editors' Choice Book\nA TIME, Washington Post, and New Yorker Best Book of 2022\nA Book Marks Best Reviewed Book of 2022\n\nA playful history of the humble index and its outsized effect on our reading lives.\nMost of us give little thought to the back of the book―it’s just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne. Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past.\nCharting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists’ living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and prime ministers, poets, librarians and―of course―indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart―and we have been for eight hundred years. 40 illustrations\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 1324002549\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: BVV.1324002549.G\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Duncan, Dennis\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: Former library book with the usual stamps, stickers and labels. The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact  including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blue Vase Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43335343898685,"sku":"BVV.1324002549.G","price":6.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0589\/4225\/9261\/files\/1324002549-0.jpg?v=1783723769","url":"https:\/\/www.bluevasebooks.com\/products\/index-a-history-of-the-a-bookish-adventure-from-medieval-manuscripts-to-the-digital-age","provider":"Blue Vase Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}