Robert Darnton

The Dream of a Universal Library

Digitization promised to democratize learning, and despite countervailing forces the trend is toward more open access. But is an ‘Alexandria in the cloud’ really an open sesame?

Best Sellers by the Bargeload

The Greatest Show on Earth

A Buffet of French History

‘Histoire mondiale de la France,’ edited by Patrick Boucheron

Remembering Bob Silvers

On the late editor of The New York Review

Fake News Before Trump

The concoction of alternative facts is hardly rare, and the equivalent of today’s poisonous, bite-size texts and tweets can be found in most periods of history, going back to the ancients.

A Way to Make the National Digital Library Work: An Exchange

On copyright and the shared dream of digitizing our nation’s literary heritage

Open the Boxes

Give Self-Published Books a Chance

The New Hillary Library?

Democratization of access to culture should be a high priority for the new president.

Mme de Staël and the Mystery of the Public Will

The Threat to the Editorial Institute

A Very Different Paris

Great New Possibilities for the Library of Congress!

How to Become a Celebrity

Laughter and Terror

No one is laughing these days in Paris. In fact, the massacre at the office of Charlie Hebdo raises questions about laughter itself.

Overpriced Scholarship: An Exchange

The Soul of the Censor

To dismiss censorship as crude repression by ignorant bureaucrats is to get it wrong.

A World Digital Library

The public should have access to knowledge produced with public funds

The Good Way to Do History