The Specter of the Archive
Popper, Nicholas
From the sixteenth century forward, the volume of paper in Britain grew enormously. Cheaper than parchment, it allowed statesmen of the time to record drafts, memoranda, and other ephemera that might have otherwise been lost to a wax tablet. And as the volume of original paperwork ballooned, the number of copies grew still further: secretaries took down version after version of letters, records, policy proposals, and more. There was no longer ...
