The library: a fragile history

Prologue. curating the ruins --

Part 1: Inception and survival. A confusion of scrolls ; Sanctuary ; Little monkeys and letters of gold --

Part 2: The crisis of print. The infernal press ; Coming of age ; Reformations --

Part 3: The new collectors. The professionals ; Idle books and riff raff ; Mission fields --

Part 4: Between public and private. Grand designs ; Cardinal errors ; The antiquarians --

Part 5: Fictions. Orderly minds ; Building empires ; Reading on the job --

Part 6: The war on books. Surviving the twentieth century ; Wrestling with modernity ; Libraries, books and politics ; Postscript. Reading without books.