"It is rare for a tour d'horizon also to be a tour de force, but this compact introduction to the new field of the history of knowledge qualifies on both counts. In less than two hundred pages, Burke maps out a new Republic of Letters, far more inclusive than the old one. Burke's vast learning is lightly worn, and the ... Read morereader is rewarded with glittering aperçus and striking comparisons on almost every page." Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin "What counts as ‘knowledge’ and how can it be said to have a ‘history’? Peter Burke, the world’s foremost authority in the field, provides an eminently lucid guide to the momentous shifts that have been taking place in a gamut of intellectual disciplines. Intellectual history will never be the same again." Geoffrey Lloyd, Needham Research Institute Show Less