The Paper Trail

The Paper Trail
By:Alexander Monro
Published on 2016-03-22 by Vintage

A sweeping, richly detailed history that tells the fascinating story of how paper—the simple Chinese invention of two thousand years ago—wrapped itself around our world, humankind’s most momentous ideas imprinted on its surface. The emergence of paper in the imperial court of Han China brought about a revolution in the transmission of knowledge and ideas, allowing religions, philosophies and propaganda to spread with ever greater ease. The first writing surface sufficiently cheap, portable and printable for books, pamphlets and journals to be mass-produced and distributed widely, paper opened the way for an unprecedented, ongoing dialogue between individuals and between communities across continents, oceans and time. The Paper Trail explores how the new substance was used to solidify social and political systems that influenced China even into our own time. We see how paper made possible the spread of the then new religions of Buddhism and Manichaeism into Japan, Korea and Vietnam . . . how it enabled theologians, scientists and artists to build the vast and signally intellectual empire of the Abbasid Caliphate and embed the Koran in popular culture . . . how paper was carried along the Silk Road by merchants and missionaries, finally reaching Europe in the late thirteenth century . . . and how, once established in Europe, along with the printing press, paper played an essential role in the three great foundations of Western modernity: the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. Here is a dramatic, comprehensively researched, vividly written story populated by holy men and scholars, warriors and poets, rulers and ordinary men and women—an essential story brilliantly told in this luminous work of history. From the Hardcover edition.

This Book was ranked at 22 by Google Books for keyword inventions.

Book ID of The Paper Trail's Books is -Y6mCQAAQBAJ, Book which was written byAlexander Monrohave ETAG "bJeQ66JCyJw"

Book which was published by Vintage since 2016-03-22 have ISBNs, ISBN 13 Code is 9780307962300 and ISBN 10 Code is 030796230X

Reading Mode in Text Status is true and Reading Mode in Image Status is false

Book which have "384 Pages" is Printed at BOOK under CategoryHistory

This Book was rated by Raters and have average rate at ""

This eBook Maturity (Adult Book) status is NOT_MATURE

Book was written in en

eBook Version Availability Status at PDF is falseand in ePub is true

Book Preview