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Goldsboro Books

978-1800814936

The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict

The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict

by Andrew Pettegree

Publisher Profile Books

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  • Signed by the Author
  • UK First Edition
  • First Printing
  • Hardcover


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About the book

'Rich, authoritative and highly readable, Andrew Pettegree's tour de force will appeal to anyone for whom, whatever the circumstances, books are an abiding, indispensable part of life.' David Kynaston

Chairman Mao was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando - before leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the advent of modern warfare, books have all too often found themselves on the frontline.

In The Book at War, acclaimed historian Andrew Pettegree traces the surprising ways in which written culture - from travel guides and scientific papers to Biggles and Anne Frank - has shaped, and been shaped, by the conflicts of the modern age.

From the American Civil War to the invasion of Ukraine, books, authors and readers have gone to war - and in the process become both deadly weapons and our most persuasive arguments for peace.

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About the Author

Andrew Pettegree

Andrew Pettegree is one of the leading experts on Europe during the Reformation. He currently holds a professorship at St Andrews University where he is the director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue Project.

His prizewinning study of early print culture, The Book in the Renaissance (Yale University Press, 2010) was a New York Times notable book of the year, and The Invention of News (Yale University Press, 2014) won Harvard University’s Goldsmith Prize. Brand Luther: 1517, Print and the Making of the Reformation (Penguin, 2015), was described by the Washington Post as ‘A remarkable story, and one sure to change the way we think about the early Reformation’. His latest, The Library: A Fragile History, was published in 2021, and co-written with Arthur der Weduwen. This ‘sweeping, absorbing history’ (Richard Ovenden) was named a Sunday Times Book of the Year and longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown 2022. In 2021, Andrew was elected a Fellow of The British Academy.

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  • Book Condition & Notes

    All of our books that a have dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

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