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Index, A History of the
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
14 posts | 5 read | 9 to read
Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But here, hiding in plain sight, is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. Here we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne. This is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Here, for the first time, its story is told. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Dennis Duncan reveals how the index has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists' living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and prime ministers, poets, librarians and - of course - indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart, and we have been for eight hundred years.
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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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Pickpick

More fun than I thought it was going to be! It's clear that the author is a lover of books, information management, and history. Following the history of the index, Duncan focuses on a number of historical figures and also touches on the history of publishing, literature, scholarship, politics, and religion in earlier eras. I admit to being surprised by how much of the story of the index was much, much older than I thought. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? The subtitle's inclusion of the 'digital age' is in practice more of an end cap argument regarding the need to acknowledge the skill that a human brings to providing subject indexes of value. While automated 'concordances' may offer readers the ease of finding a word anywhere in a digital document, they have less value as a reference/educational resource than a subject index, which these days may begin with the aid of software, but requires a 1mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/3 human to do the deep reading computers are not (currently) capable of. Having thoroughly enjoyed the saucier side of index history, I would LOVE to see satirical indexes make a come back as a literary form, and I am intrigued by the nascent possibilities an earlier time suggested for poetical indexes. As always, the writer's passion for the subject matter in a work of non-fiction makes all the difference. 1mo
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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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The pièce de résistance: the book ends with a healthy snippet of an unpruned automated index, followed by one created by a HUMAN. 😁
Point well made, Duncan. 👏🏻

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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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THIS is my version of helpful computers. Humans are value-added professionals with specific knowledge and skills; computers speed up tasks that would otherwise bulk out a job with time-intensive drudgery.

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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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🫢💅🏻

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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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All hail the mighty page number! 🙇🏼‍♂️

dabbe I also find the numbers in the left margins of poems to be highly helpful--like in THE ILIAD, for example. 🤩😂🤩 1mo
Robotswithpersonality @dabbe YES! The way (epic) poems are broken up into these little chunks of text, it feels like you\'re getting several pages worth on one page, having each one numbered makes such a text (especially one that can be so thick with antiquated meaning that has to be puzzled out) easier to navigate. 1mo
dabbe @Robotswithpersonality I also know it really helped when teaching the kids. I could say, “Let's look at line 743, and they could find it quickly. Without those numbers every 5th line, they literally would have to count to 743 to find the line! 😂 1mo
Robotswithpersonality @dabbe And due respect to math teachers, but nobody needs to add math to their reading experience! 🫣 1mo
5 likes5 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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The pointy finger has a name! I love the association with Monty Python. ☺️

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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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You might not favour it Dennis, but I would LOVE to be able to refer to a book label as a sillyboi. ☺️

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Robotswithpersonality
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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Academic throwdown: Allow me to take the time in this index to list EVERY SINGLE THING YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT. 😝

GingerAntics Love that so much! 2mo
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review
stevesbookstuf1
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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Pickpick

The title of this book with its words ordered as they might appear in an index entry, is a hint of the clever and witty writing contained inside. Who knew that the index - that set of pages at the back of books - had such a long and interesting history?

Done with humor and fondness I think it will appeal even if you think you are only marginally interested in the idea at first.

Full review: https://tinyurl.com/2k76ke8t

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review
everlocalwest
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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Pickpick

It takes a particular kind of nerd to pick up a book about the history of indexing, I am that nerd. But this book is delightful! Duncan is a funny and engaging writer. From the Library of Alexandria to political jabs coded within a book's index to the benefits and detriments of computer rather than human indexing...there's a ton of fascinating history here.

squirrelbrain Look @julesG - a yellow NF book! Up your street too @rockpools , or too close for comfort?! 3y
julesG @squirrelbrain Perfect! Thanks for the tag. I'll put it on the TBR 3y
rockpools Very timely! Happy National Indexing Day two days ago! Dennis is a complete star and very funny speaker - I probably will read this one day, but for now I‘m really pleased you‘re enjoying it. And Paula, who wrote the index for this, is also awesome- I‘d be curious to see if that contains a few quips - I can‘t believe they‘ve written it ‘straight‘! @squirrelbrain (edited) 3y
rockpools What I really want to know though @everlocalwest is what‘s in that box of snacks? 3y
everlocalwest Lol, @rockpools - I take it you're an indexer? I admit I'd never thought too much about the profession but after reading this I'm sure it's an interesting bunch of folks! The careful reading a proper index demands must be fulfiling and intense! (And bath snacks are always trailmix, though I think I might be in a very limited number of people who snack in the bath.) 3y
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Bookwomble
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan
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I heard the author give a radio interview yesterday, and this sounds like a fun and interesting read, though I think I'll wait for the paperback edition.
He said that the book index arose due to the development of universities and Christian preachers, both of which groups needed a quick way to find citations and references for study and sermons. 👇🏼

Bookwomble This new-fangled medieval literary technology was greeted by doomsayers as the end of knowledge and a dumbing-down of education now that ignorant and lazy people could easily find and pick out the juicy bits without reading the whole book! 😄 3y
16 likes1 comment
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shanaqui
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan

I love the fact that people used indexes to snipe at each other, and it even cost someone an election.

rockpools Yay! As a former book indexer, this makes me very happy. It won‘t surprise you to know that Dennis Duncan is a fab speaker/very funny! 3y
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blurb
shanaqui
Index, A History of the | Dennis Duncan

Received to review! I love taking something mundane and everyday (like white bread or indexes or whatever) and looking at its history, so I'm looking forward to this.