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The Library
- A Fragile History
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
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The Library
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Publisher's summary
Perfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age.
Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes - and remakes - the institution anew.
Beautifully written and deeply researched, The Library is essential for booklovers, collectors, and anyone who has ever gotten blissfully lost in the stacks.
Critic reviews
"What is a ‘library’? Is it a mute display of personal wealth and power, or of a humble devotion to God? A routine community resource, or a waste of taxpayers’ money? In The Library, we are led nimbly through the centuries, seeing how it has been all of these things and more, as the authors place on the shelf a cornucopia of bookish history." (Judith Flanders, author of A Place for Everything)
"A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library." (Richard Ovenden, University of Oxford)
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-
Brand Luther
- How an Unheralded Young Minister Turned His Small German Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe - and Started the Protestant Reformation
- By: Andrew Pettegree
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
When an obscure monk named Martin Luther tacked his theses on the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517, protesting corrupt practices, he was virtually unknown. Within months his ideas spread across Germany then all of Europe; within years their author was not just famous but infamous, responsible for catalyzing the violent wave of religious reform that would come to be known as the Protestant Reformation and engulfing Europe in decades of bloody war.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Informed, Impacting
- By Bill Martin on 01-14-16
By: Andrew Pettegree
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Germany: Memories of a Nation
- By: Neil MacGregor
- Narrated by: Neil MacGregor
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Thirty years ago, a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany, both geography and history have always been unstable.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good "listen"
- By astasteel on 07-29-22
By: Neil MacGregor
-
Age of Enlightenment
- A Captivating Guide to the Age of Reason, Including the Lives of Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Mary Somerville
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
If you want to discover the captivating history of the Age of Enlightenment, then pay attention.... The life of an eminent scientist during the Scientific Revolution and the ensuing Enlightenment was not easy. Ambitious people were killed in the name of the Catholic Church for their scientific and philosophical works, which were often viewed as heretical. Major figures of the Enlightenment period include Voltaire, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Thomas Jefferson.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Should Be Requred Listening In Schools
- By Gail L Smith on 03-26-20
-
The Verge
- Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years That Shook the World
- By: Patrick Wyman
- Narrated by: Patrick Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,082
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 915
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 912
In the best-selling tradition of The Swerve and A Distant Mirror, The Verge tells the story of a period that marked a decisive turning point for both European and world history. Here, author Patrick Wyman examines two complementary and contradictory sides of the same historical coin: the world-altering implications of the developments of printed mass media, extreme taxation, exploitative globalization, humanistic learning, gunpowder warfare, and mass religious conflict in the long term, and their intensely disruptive consequences in the short-term.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Like the Podcast but Better.
- By Michael S. Labrow on 07-21-21
By: Patrick Wyman
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A World Beneath the Sands
- The Golden Age of Egyptology
- By: Toby Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson chronicles the ruthless race between the British, French, Germans, and Americans to lay claim to its mysteries and treasures. He tells riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt’s ancient civilization helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An entrancing listen, fascinating History
- By L. Ford Ballard, Jr. on 01-27-21
By: Toby Wilkinson
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The Florentines
- From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened that transformed the entire culture of Western civilization. Painting, sculpture, and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born - or emerge in an entirely new guise.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator ruins the narrative
- By amavita on 03-24-22
By: Paul Strathern
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The Europeans
- Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
At the center of the book is a poignant love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, with whom Turgenev had a long and intimate relationship; and her husband Louis Viardot, an art critic, theater manager, and republican activist. Together, Turgenev and the Viardots acted as a kind of European cultural exchange - they either knew or crossed paths with Delacroix, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky, among many other towering figures.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
DO LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!!!
- By JK on 10-28-21
By: Orlando Figes
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Millennium
- From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed over a Thousand Years
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
In Millennium, best-selling historian Ian Mortimer takes the listener on a whirlwind tour of the last 10 centuries of Western history. It is a journey into a past vividly brought to life and bursting with ideas, that pits one century against another in his quest to measure which century saw the greatest change. We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burned to the ground by invaders - and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer - to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilizations came into conflict.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Bad ending - literally
- By John Gordon on 12-14-16
By: Ian Mortimer
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 141
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 114
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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3 out of 5 stars
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By reader on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
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The Invention of Sicily
- A Mediterranean History
- By: Jamie Mackay
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Sicily has always acted as a gateway between Europe and the rest of the world. Fought over by the Phoenicians and Greeks, the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, and the Spanish and the French for thousands of years, Sicily became a unique melting pot where diverse traditions merged, producing a unique heritage and singular culture. In this fascinating account of the island from the earliest times to the present day, author and journalist Jamie Mackay leads us through this most elusive of places.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful overview of Sicily
- By jay lazier on 01-28-24
By: Jamie Mackay
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A History of Japan
- Revised Edition
- By: R. H. P. Mason, J. G. Caiger
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 223
A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-Cold War period and collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Content great - pronunciation not so much
- By A. Weber on 03-08-19
By: R. H. P. Mason, and others
-
How the Scots Invented the Modern World
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 465
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 415
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 416
Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the 18th and 19th centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics - contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. This book is not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Eagerly Awaited Audiobook
- By Lulu on 09-01-16
By: Arthur Herman
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Shakespeare's Library
- Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature
- By: Stuart Kells
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Millions of words of scholarship have been expended on the world's most famous author and his work. And yet a critical part of the puzzle, Shakespeare's library, is a mystery. For four centuries people have searched for it: in mansions, palaces, and libraries; in riverbeds, sheep pens, and partridge coops; and in the corridors of the mind. Yet no trace of the Bard's manuscripts, books, or letters has ever been found.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Dismissed Mary Sidney Herbert without explanation
- By Lisa on 07-30-19
By: Stuart Kells
-
Lost Enlightenment
- Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
- By: S. Frederick Starr
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 497
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 429
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 427
Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Subject worthwhile but repetative narrative
- By F-M on 04-10-14
-
The Fall of Rome
- And the End of Civilization
- By: Bryan Ward-Perkins
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization, throwing the inhabitants of the West back to a standard of living typical of prehistoric times. Attacking contemporary theories with relish and making use of modern archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
best book ever on Fall of Rome
- By james m. on 01-30-22
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Most 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 shite 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.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Great book, Horrible narrator
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The Map of Knowledge
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The foundations of modern knowledge - philosophy, math, astronomy, geography - were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed. Yet some texts did survive and The Map of Knowledge explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Terrible narration.
- By nathan535 on 11-05-19
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Around the World in 80 Books
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 25
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Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring 80 exceptional books from around the globe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a fantastic book!
- By Sarah on 01-21-23
By: David Damrosch
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Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
- By: Christopher de Hamel
- Narrated by: Christopher de Hamel
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is rather like meeting a very famous person. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, and yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting and talking to a person of world stature. The idea for this book, which is entirely new, is to invite the listener into an intimate conversation with a selection of the most famous manuscripts in existence and to let each of those manuscripts illuminate the Middle Ages and sometimes the modern world too.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I've been waiting a long time for a book like this
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The Manuscripts Club
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wish de Hamel had narrated it all
- By Justa Guy on 12-05-23
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Index, a History of The
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4 out of 5 stars 25
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4 out of 5 stars
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1 out of 5 stars
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Great book, Horrible narrator
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
The foundations of modern knowledge - philosophy, math, astronomy, geography - were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed. Yet some texts did survive and The Map of Knowledge explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Terrible narration.
- By nathan535 on 11-05-19
By: Violet Moller
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Around the World in 80 Books
- By: David Damrosch
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4 out of 5 stars 25
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a fantastic book!
- By Sarah on 01-21-23
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
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5 out of 5 stars
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I've been waiting a long time for a book like this
- By Robert on 04-15-18
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The Manuscripts Club
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wish de Hamel had narrated it all
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The Book at War
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- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
We tend not to talk about books and war in the same breath—one ranks among humanity’s greatest inventions, the other among its most terrible. But as esteemed literary historian Andrew Pettegree demonstrates, the two are deeply intertwined. The Book at War explores the various roles that books have played in conflicts throughout the globe. With precise historical analysis and sparkling prose, The Book at War accounts for the power—and the ambivalence—of words at war.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important, Moving Book and Topic; Performance, Hoarse and Haunting at Times.
- By Quijotic on 12-26-23
By: Andrew Pettegree
-
The Library
- A Catalogue of Wonders
- By: Stuart Kells
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
Libraries are much more than mere collections of volumes. The best are magical, fabled places whose fame has become part of the cultural wealth they are designed to preserve. The Library is a celebration of books as objects, a celebration of the anthropology and physicality of books and bookish space, and an account of the human side of these hallowed spaces by a leading and passionate bibliophile.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
wonderful!
- By Birding_Bubba on 04-16-23
By: Stuart Kells
-
The Library
- By: Bella Osborne
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin, Harry Lister Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Tom is a teenager and blends into the background of life. After a row with his dad and facing an unhappy future at the dog food factory, he escapes to the library. Tom unwittingly ends up with a bagful of romance novels and comes under the suspicion of Maggie. Maggie is a pensioner and has been happily alone for 10 years, at least that's what she tells herself. When Tom comes to her rescue, a friendship develops that could change her life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Being a teenager is tough
- By Kristyn Rose on 12-18-23
By: Bella Osborne
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About Time
- A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks
- By: David Rooney
- Narrated by: David Rooney
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
Through the stories of 12 clocks, About Time brings pivotal moments from the past vividly to life. Historian and lifelong clock enthusiast David Rooney takes us from the unveiling of al-Jazari’s castle clock in 1206, in present-day Turkey; to the Cape of Good Hope observatory at the southern tip of Africa, where 19th-century British government astronomers moved the gears of empire with a time ball and a gun; to the burial of a plutonium clock now sealed beneath a public park in Osaka, where it will keep time for 5,000 years.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A strange disappointment
- By Jeffrey L. Smith, PE on 06-25-22
By: David Rooney
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The Library Book
- By: Susan Orlean
- Narrated by: Susan Orlean
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,942
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 3,471
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,461
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was good-bye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Had To Turn It Off
- By Meg on 01-17-19
By: Susan Orlean
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The Gilded Page
- The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
- By: Mary Wellesley
- Narrated by: Mary Wellesley
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11
Medieval manuscripts can tell us much about power and art, knowledge and beauty. Many have survived because of an author’s status - part of the reason we have so much of Chaucer’s writing, for example, is because he was a London-based government official first and a poet second.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not suited for audio
- By Secutor on 05-27-22
By: Mary Wellesley
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The Rise and Fall of Alexandria
- Birthplace of the Modern Mind
- By: Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,015
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 683
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 681
Founded by Alexander the Great and built by self-styled Greek pharaohs, the city of Alexandria at its height dwarfed both Athens and Rome. It was the marvel of its age, legendary for its vast palaces, safe harbors, and magnificent lighthouse. But it was most famous for the astonishing intellectual efflorescence it fostered and the library it produced. If the European Renaissance was the "rebirth" of Western culture, then Alexandria, Egypt, was its birthplace.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good listen
- By Jeffrey on 10-02-08
By: Justin Pollard, and others
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The Reopening of the Western Mind
- The Resurgence of Intellectual Life from the End of Antiquity to the Dawn of the Enlightenment
- By: Charles Freeman
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 27 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
Charles Freeman, lauded historical scholar and author of The Closing of the Western Mind (“A triumph”—The Times), explores the rebirth of Western thought in the centuries that followed the demise of the classical era. As the dominance of Christian teachings gradually subsided over time, a new open-mindedness made way for the ideas of morality and theology, and fueled and formed the backbone of the Western mind of the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating survey of 1,000+ years of thought
- By Roger on 11-07-23
By: Charles Freeman
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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3 out of 5 stars
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By reader on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
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Burning the Books
- A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge
- By: Richard Ovenden
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
In Burning the Books, Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling and relevant
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-23
By: Richard Ovenden
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The Book
- A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time
- By: Keith Houston
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue, and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages - of civilizations, empires, human ingenuity, and madness. In an invitingly tactile history of this 2,000-year-old medium, Houston follows the development of writing, printing, the art of illustrations, and binding to show how we have moved from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hardcovers and paperbacks of today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Definitely worth listening to....
- By Alednam A Uonopk on 05-10-22
By: Keith Houston
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Beyond Measure
- The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
- By: James Vincent
- Narrated by: James Vincent
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Hoped for more information
- By A Z A R on 06-26-23
By: James Vincent
What listeners say about The Library
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kamron
- 02-28-23
Woodworking inspiring
It is very informative and great listen as I build a Victorian Library for a client.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 04-29-23
Stays on point
A well written history book. It was really interesting and informative but it's best feature was that it kept on point. Some history books can go off on tangents for too long, like biographies that get mired in all the details of WWII, but this book stayed focused on it's topic of books and libraries. Very good.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- clayton rodriguez
- 01-23-24
Interesting History
Great breakdown of the history and cultural significance of libraries throughout the course of history.
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