The library: a fragile history

Prologue: curating the ruins

Inception and survival. A confusion of scrolls ; Sanctuary ; Little monkeys and letters of gold

The crisis of print. The infernal press ; Coming of age ; Reformations

The new collectors. The professionals ; Idle books and riff raff ; Mission fields

Between public and private. Grand designs ; Cardinal errors ; The antiquarians

Fictions. Orderly minds ; Building empires ; Reading on the job

The war on books. Surviving the twentieth century ; Wrestling with modernity ; Libraries, books and politics

Postscript: reading without books.