Pamela Smith and Benjamin Schmidt have gathered together a wide-ranging and provocative set of original essays that successfully demonstrate how contingent the process of making knowledge was during a period of fundamental epistemological change. This is a finely crafted and conceptualized collection.

Wordlessly I looked back at him, astonished that a kiss on the palm could be so intimate.

there’s nothing more powerful than human fear—not magic, not vampire strength. Nothing.

Memories were short and history unkind. It was the way of the world.

Se Souvenir du passe, et qu'il ya un avenir: Remember the past, and that there is a future.

That evening, rowing on the quiet river as sunset turned to dusk, I saw an occasional smoky smudge on the towpath, always slightly ahead of me, like a dark star guiding me home.

His full name is Matthew Gabriel Philippe Bertrand Sebastien de Clermont. He was also a very good Sebastien, and a passable Gabriel. He hates Bertrand and will not answer to Philippe.