Darnton 2002

Darnton, Robert. "What is the History of Books?" The Book History Reader. Eds. David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. New York: Routledge, 2002. 9-26.

"its purpose is to understand how ideas were transmitted through print and how exposure to the printed word affected the thought and behavior of mankind during the last five hundred years" (9)

highly interdisciplinary (10)

life cycle of a book: "communications circuit that runs from the author to the publisher (if the bookseller does not assume that role), the printer, the shipper, the bookseller, and the reader. The reader completes the circuit because he influences the author both before and after the act of composition" (11)

"some holistic view of the book as a means of communication seems necessary if book history is to avoid being fragmented into esoteric specializations cut off from each other by arcane techniques and mutual misunderstanding" (11)