The Specter of the Archive

By Nicholas Popper,

Book cover of The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain

Book description

An exploration of the proliferation of paper in early modern Britain and its far-reaching effects on politics and society.

We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more information is more available than ever before. In The Specter of the Archive, Nicholas Popper shows that…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Specter of the Archive as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Today, archives are places where we go to research and learn about the past. But as Popper’s fascinating book shows, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, governments used archives like we use computers and databases today as facilities for storing information they considered immediately relevant to solving political problems.

Just like we use computers today, governments mobilized archives to collect, organize, and redeploy information to advance their specific policy objectives. While the early modern world might seem quite distant from our own, Popper shows us that the problem of using information to exert political power is a very old…

From Asheesh's list on understand the history of data.

Want books like The Specter of the Archive?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Specter of the Archive.

Browse books like The Specter of the Archive

Book cover of How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
Book cover of The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System
Book cover of Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,201

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in management, London, and murder?

Management 147 books
London 862 books
Murder 1,071 books