The peasant of early modern France inhabited a world of step-mothers and orphans, of inexorable, unending toil, and of brutal emotions, both raw and repressed.The human condition has changed so much since then that we can hardly imagine the way it appeared to people whose lives really were nasty, brutish, and short. This is why we need to reread Mother Goose.
Robert DarntonMy work has taken me from historical research to involvement in electronic publishing ventures to the directorship of the Harvard University Libraries.
Robert DarntonI worked for a brief spell as a journalist, but soon I discovered that I didn't want to be a journalist - I wanted to be a historian.
Robert DarntonAs president of the American Historical Association, I started a programme to make dissertations into e-books in 1999. Before I knew it, I was involved in other electronic projects. Harvard invited me to become director of the libraries in 2007.
Robert DarntonI would not minimize the digital divide, which separates the computerized world from the rest, nor would I underestimate the importance of traditional books.
Robert DarntonThe American revolutionaries believed in the power of the word. But they had only word of mouth and the printing press. We have the Internet.
Robert DarntonIn 2002, Google began an ambitious project to digitize every book in the world. It was intended as a search project: type in a query, and Google would show you snippets. They asked university libraries for books, which they would scan for free. At Harvard we didn't permit them to take works under copyright, but other libraries gave them everything.
Robert Darnton