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kanejim57's review
5.0
“… a guiding premise of this book has been to demonstrate that paper is a substance of utility, almost always defined by the task at hand.”
Written with a travelogue like quality, Nicholas A. Basbanes, “a self-professed Bibliophiliac” as indicated on the cover, takes us on a journey of paper’s “two thousand years” of development and history. The result, Basbanes' Paper: The Everything of Its Two Year History. is a fascinating, informational, educational, and inspirational look at paper.
Beginning with paper’s origin in the Far East followed by its westward journey through the Middle East, then into Europe and the New World of America, On Paper brings the reader through the development of both paper and its impact and shaping of World Civilization from law, to religion, to architecture, government, and consumer products. Basbanes' detailed telling of how paper was made, from rags and then from wood pulp, makes it clear that as the availability of paper increased, it made its impact on both daily life and human history in ways large and small.
And as with any great travelogue, On Paper contains numerous stories of how paper made both companies and people successful and even famous. For example, if you play cards with Bicycle playing cards or, if you just filled a small soufflé cup of ketchup at your favorite fast-food place, then you have a product of the P.H. Glatfelter company of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Never heard of them? I didn’t until I read this book and discovered what I believe Basbane well illustrates about the future of not just paper industry but paper itself:
“During George Glatfelter’s… stewardship… the company became the leading producer of more than a thousand different specialty papers for a varied cluster of “niche” markets.”
Those papers run the gauntlet from United States Postal Service postage stamps, Hallmark greeting cards, tea bags for several leading tea companies to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrappers. The result was a company using presses (updated to be sure) designed for papers of another time in a new age, and with a very niche minded approach to making paper in the plural, when the much heralded “paperless society” is often believed to be the norm.
And speaking of the “paperless society” Basbanes' chapter Hard Copy chronicles the on-going bureaucratic/governmental/political obsession of both keeping, and, at times getting rid of, paper with an enlightening look red tape, the “impulse to “keep a hard copy,” and the need to “cover one’s backside” when it became politically expedient to do so. Conversely, the value to historical studies and historical meaning of paper and what it contains is highlighted in the same chapter with a look at the use of paper related to the prodigious output of John Adams and his family in their journals, letters, and papers and the use of paper documents by the Allied prosecution in the Nuremburg Trials following the Second World War in Europe. And in the concluding chapter and epilogue, Basbane's reminds us of the value of paper in an electronic age with a moving account of how paper was used to communicate in the tragic hours and days during and after September 11, 2001.
But Basbanes' also writes of those individuals, in history and of today, who make paper itself the subject of artistic inquiry and focus. Detailing the work of Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang, the wonderful art form of Origami is given a full chapter treatment in Slight of Hand and in a chapter titled In the Mold, people such as Dard Hunter, Henry Morris, and Kathryn and Howard Clark, who across both the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, have worked to keep alive the ancient practice of paper making in the United States.
What I liked about this book is the diversity of stories and the broad sweep of history in which the role of paper has played a part. It is well-written and lively and kept my interest to the final page. I was not sure what to expect when I decided a review an uncorrected proof of it via the Amazon Vine program. But I am glad that I did and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Based on my rating system I rate this book a ‘magnificant’ read!
Note: I received an uncorrected proof this this book from the Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
Written with a travelogue like quality, Nicholas A. Basbanes, “a self-professed Bibliophiliac” as indicated on the cover, takes us on a journey of paper’s “two thousand years” of development and history. The result, Basbanes' Paper: The Everything of Its Two Year History. is a fascinating, informational, educational, and inspirational look at paper.
Beginning with paper’s origin in the Far East followed by its westward journey through the Middle East, then into Europe and the New World of America, On Paper brings the reader through the development of both paper and its impact and shaping of World Civilization from law, to religion, to architecture, government, and consumer products. Basbanes' detailed telling of how paper was made, from rags and then from wood pulp, makes it clear that as the availability of paper increased, it made its impact on both daily life and human history in ways large and small.
And as with any great travelogue, On Paper contains numerous stories of how paper made both companies and people successful and even famous. For example, if you play cards with Bicycle playing cards or, if you just filled a small soufflé cup of ketchup at your favorite fast-food place, then you have a product of the P.H. Glatfelter company of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Never heard of them? I didn’t until I read this book and discovered what I believe Basbane well illustrates about the future of not just paper industry but paper itself:
“During George Glatfelter’s… stewardship… the company became the leading producer of more than a thousand different specialty papers for a varied cluster of “niche” markets.”
Those papers run the gauntlet from United States Postal Service postage stamps, Hallmark greeting cards, tea bags for several leading tea companies to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrappers. The result was a company using presses (updated to be sure) designed for papers of another time in a new age, and with a very niche minded approach to making paper in the plural, when the much heralded “paperless society” is often believed to be the norm.
And speaking of the “paperless society” Basbanes' chapter Hard Copy chronicles the on-going bureaucratic/governmental/political obsession of both keeping, and, at times getting rid of, paper with an enlightening look red tape, the “impulse to “keep a hard copy,” and the need to “cover one’s backside” when it became politically expedient to do so. Conversely, the value to historical studies and historical meaning of paper and what it contains is highlighted in the same chapter with a look at the use of paper related to the prodigious output of John Adams and his family in their journals, letters, and papers and the use of paper documents by the Allied prosecution in the Nuremburg Trials following the Second World War in Europe. And in the concluding chapter and epilogue, Basbane's reminds us of the value of paper in an electronic age with a moving account of how paper was used to communicate in the tragic hours and days during and after September 11, 2001.
But Basbanes' also writes of those individuals, in history and of today, who make paper itself the subject of artistic inquiry and focus. Detailing the work of Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang, the wonderful art form of Origami is given a full chapter treatment in Slight of Hand and in a chapter titled In the Mold, people such as Dard Hunter, Henry Morris, and Kathryn and Howard Clark, who across both the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, have worked to keep alive the ancient practice of paper making in the United States.
What I liked about this book is the diversity of stories and the broad sweep of history in which the role of paper has played a part. It is well-written and lively and kept my interest to the final page. I was not sure what to expect when I decided a review an uncorrected proof of it via the Amazon Vine program. But I am glad that I did and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Based on my rating system I rate this book a ‘magnificant’ read!
Note: I received an uncorrected proof this this book from the Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
kanejim57's review against another edition
5.0
“… a guiding premise of this book has been to demonstrate that paper is a substance of utility, almost always defined by the task at hand.”
Written with a travelogue like quality, Nicholas A. Basbanes, “a self-professed Bibliophiliac” as indicated on the cover, takes us on a journey of paper’s “two thousand years” of development and history. The result, Basbanes' Paper: The Everything of Its Two Year History. is a fascinating, informational, educational, and inspirational look at paper.
Beginning with paper’s origin in the Far East followed by its westward journey through the Middle East, then into Europe and the New World of America, On Paper brings the reader through the development of both paper and its impact and shaping of World Civilization from law, to religion, to architecture, government, and consumer products. Basbanes' detailed telling of how paper was made, from rags and then from wood pulp, makes it clear that as the availability of paper increased, it made its impact on both daily life and human history in ways large and small.
And as with any great travelogue, On Paper contains numerous stories of how paper made both companies and people successful and even famous. For example, if you play cards with Bicycle playing cards or, if you just filled a small soufflé cup of ketchup at your favorite fast-food place, then you have a product of the P.H. Glatfelter company of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Never heard of them? I didn’t until I read this book and discovered what I believe Basbane well illustrates about the future of not just paper industry but paper itself:
“During George Glatfelter’s… stewardship… the company became the leading producer of more than a thousand different specialty papers for a varied cluster of “niche” markets.”
Those papers run the gauntlet from United States Postal Service postage stamps, Hallmark greeting cards, tea bags for several leading tea companies to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrappers. The result was a company using presses (updated to be sure) designed for papers of another time in a new age, and with a very niche minded approach to making paper in the plural, when the much heralded “paperless society” is often believed to be the norm.
And speaking of the “paperless society” Basbanes' chapter Hard Copy chronicles the on-going bureaucratic/governmental/political obsession of both keeping, and, at times getting rid of, paper with an enlightening look red tape, the “impulse to “keep a hard copy,” and the need to “cover one’s backside” when it became politically expedient to do so. Conversely, the value to historical studies and historical meaning of paper and what it contains is highlighted in the same chapter with a look at the use of paper related to the prodigious output of John Adams and his family in their journals, letters, and papers and the use of paper documents by the Allied prosecution in the Nuremburg Trials following the Second World War in Europe. And in the concluding chapter and epilogue, Basbane's reminds us of the value of paper in an electronic age with a moving account of how paper was used to communicate in the tragic hours and days during and after September 11, 2001.
But Basbanes' also writes of those individuals, in history and of today, who make paper itself the subject of artistic inquiry and focus. Detailing the work of Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang, the wonderful art form of Origami is given a full chapter treatment in Slight of Hand and in a chapter titled In the Mold, people such as Dard Hunter, Henry Morris, and Kathryn and Howard Clark, who across both the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, have worked to keep alive the ancient practice of paper making in the United States.
What I liked about this book is the diversity of stories and the broad sweep of history in which the role of paper has played a part. It is well-written and lively and kept my interest to the final page. I was not sure what to expect when I decided a review an uncorrected proof of it via the Amazon Vine program. But I am glad that I did and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Based on my rating system I rate this book a ‘magnificant’ read!
Note: I received an uncorrected proof this this book from the Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
Written with a travelogue like quality, Nicholas A. Basbanes, “a self-professed Bibliophiliac” as indicated on the cover, takes us on a journey of paper’s “two thousand years” of development and history. The result, Basbanes' Paper: The Everything of Its Two Year History. is a fascinating, informational, educational, and inspirational look at paper.
Beginning with paper’s origin in the Far East followed by its westward journey through the Middle East, then into Europe and the New World of America, On Paper brings the reader through the development of both paper and its impact and shaping of World Civilization from law, to religion, to architecture, government, and consumer products. Basbanes' detailed telling of how paper was made, from rags and then from wood pulp, makes it clear that as the availability of paper increased, it made its impact on both daily life and human history in ways large and small.
And as with any great travelogue, On Paper contains numerous stories of how paper made both companies and people successful and even famous. For example, if you play cards with Bicycle playing cards or, if you just filled a small soufflé cup of ketchup at your favorite fast-food place, then you have a product of the P.H. Glatfelter company of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Never heard of them? I didn’t until I read this book and discovered what I believe Basbane well illustrates about the future of not just paper industry but paper itself:
“During George Glatfelter’s… stewardship… the company became the leading producer of more than a thousand different specialty papers for a varied cluster of “niche” markets.”
Those papers run the gauntlet from United States Postal Service postage stamps, Hallmark greeting cards, tea bags for several leading tea companies to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrappers. The result was a company using presses (updated to be sure) designed for papers of another time in a new age, and with a very niche minded approach to making paper in the plural, when the much heralded “paperless society” is often believed to be the norm.
And speaking of the “paperless society” Basbanes' chapter Hard Copy chronicles the on-going bureaucratic/governmental/political obsession of both keeping, and, at times getting rid of, paper with an enlightening look red tape, the “impulse to “keep a hard copy,” and the need to “cover one’s backside” when it became politically expedient to do so. Conversely, the value to historical studies and historical meaning of paper and what it contains is highlighted in the same chapter with a look at the use of paper related to the prodigious output of John Adams and his family in their journals, letters, and papers and the use of paper documents by the Allied prosecution in the Nuremburg Trials following the Second World War in Europe. And in the concluding chapter and epilogue, Basbane's reminds us of the value of paper in an electronic age with a moving account of how paper was used to communicate in the tragic hours and days during and after September 11, 2001.
But Basbanes' also writes of those individuals, in history and of today, who make paper itself the subject of artistic inquiry and focus. Detailing the work of Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang, the wonderful art form of Origami is given a full chapter treatment in Slight of Hand and in a chapter titled In the Mold, people such as Dard Hunter, Henry Morris, and Kathryn and Howard Clark, who across both the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, have worked to keep alive the ancient practice of paper making in the United States.
What I liked about this book is the diversity of stories and the broad sweep of history in which the role of paper has played a part. It is well-written and lively and kept my interest to the final page. I was not sure what to expect when I decided a review an uncorrected proof of it via the Amazon Vine program. But I am glad that I did and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Based on my rating system I rate this book a ‘magnificant’ read!
Note: I received an uncorrected proof this this book from the Amazon Vine review program in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.
anajurs's review against another edition
3.0
I literally just finished reading the epilogue so I want to write this review while everything is fresh in my mind. But first, let me just say that this is a First Reads review; I received the book sometime last year and have only just finished it now!
Firstly, it is easy to see that this book was a labor of love for Basbanes. The book is full of details from trips he has taken and people he has talked throughout his career and it is easy to sense his genuine enthusiasm for the subject. The book is loosely based on a historical timeline and gives a general overview of important periods in the history of paper, but Basbanes is not hesitant to devote a chapter to people/places/events of particular importance. I think this techniques works particularly well because it allows him to highlight people and/or companies that have been innovative or instrumental in some way to how we use paper today.
All that being said, I almost didn't come back to finish this book. The first two chapter which concentrate on ancient and modern papermaking in East Asia seemed to me to be full of technical details for which I had no reference point and which made me a very confused reader. However, I am glad that did continue reading because the subject matter that he discussed from that point on -- as paper traveled westward -- became much more familiar and interesting to me. My favorite parts of the book are on the invention of Kotex sanitary pads and the propaganda pamphlets of WWII. The epilogue on papers collected from the site of the 9/11 attacks is quite moving.
Overall, I would recommend the book to anybody who has interest in the history of paper or history in general. It was perfectly clear to a lay reader like me so you needn't worry that it contains too much technical jargon. If you, like me, the first two chapters to be incredibly boring, feel free to skip to the third; you won't have missed anything that is essential to understanding the rest of the book.
Firstly, it is easy to see that this book was a labor of love for Basbanes. The book is full of details from trips he has taken and people he has talked throughout his career and it is easy to sense his genuine enthusiasm for the subject. The book is loosely based on a historical timeline and gives a general overview of important periods in the history of paper, but Basbanes is not hesitant to devote a chapter to people/places/events of particular importance. I think this techniques works particularly well because it allows him to highlight people and/or companies that have been innovative or instrumental in some way to how we use paper today.
All that being said, I almost didn't come back to finish this book. The first two chapter which concentrate on ancient and modern papermaking in East Asia seemed to me to be full of technical details for which I had no reference point and which made me a very confused reader. However, I am glad that did continue reading because the subject matter that he discussed from that point on -- as paper traveled westward -- became much more familiar and interesting to me. My favorite parts of the book are on the invention of Kotex sanitary pads and the propaganda pamphlets of WWII. The epilogue on papers collected from the site of the 9/11 attacks is quite moving.
Overall, I would recommend the book to anybody who has interest in the history of paper or history in general. It was perfectly clear to a lay reader like me so you needn't worry that it contains too much technical jargon. If you, like me, the first two chapters to be incredibly boring, feel free to skip to the third; you won't have missed anything that is essential to understanding the rest of the book.
real_life_reading's review against another edition
2.0
I give it two stars based on the 100 pages I read. Just wasn't enough to hold my interest.
natelm2nd's review against another edition
3.0
I found this book interesting but hard to come back to. I could see it more as a college student's research source than what my 2015 self attempted to use as entertainment during his first year of bachelor's degree life. Both Nicholas and Mark Kurlansky's "Paper" are quite long, for paper is apparently older than several well known countries and even empires. I may give it a re-read now that I am done with school. Perhaps it would behoove me to try this tome as an audio book.
jennybeastie's review against another edition
3.0
I felt impatient about the introduction and the first chapter, but once Basbanes really gets going talking about the history of papermaking, I was hooked. I have to admit that I don't get as jazzed about currency or bureaucracy as some of the later chapters demand, but on the whole a very engaging history with bits I loved to pieces.
shays's review against another edition
3.0
How we make paper has changed over the centuries and millennia, even as we continue to come up with novel uses for it, but our focus is always on the product, and rarely on the production. On Paper is a fascinating work in that it foregrounds the medium and the various purposes it has been put to, forcing the reader’s attention to something which, especially when reading, is generally ignored unless there is something wrong with it. read more
meiklejohn's review against another edition
3.0
This starts really slowly, and then is uneven - I found the chapters about books and documents, which were only tangentially about the paper on which those books and documents were written, far more interesting than the chapters about paper-making. But it's definitely comprehensive and Basbanes clearly loves his subject matter.
wilsonthomasjoseph's review against another edition
Intriguing history of paper. Would not have come across Dard Hunter or the evolution of paper from other writing surfaces otherwise. Also wouldn't haven't known about the actual consistency of paper and the interesting artisans that champion it. It is a good read for enthusiasts. Although, I do have a slight contention with some of the sidebar writing that the author puts in the narrative. Some of it can be too much diary and not enough paper.
hilaritas's review
This is a loving treatment of all things paper, but frankly, it was too much detail for me despite my high tolerance for books exploring random topics in depth. I had to give up.
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