Books
“Simon Winchester has made an illustrious career of raising anecdote to art,” says Peter Sagal in The New York Times, and his latest book is no exception. A detailed history of knowledge – how it is created, classified, stored and disseminated – Knowing What We Know is stuffed with “intriguing information”. Were you aware, for example, that the first office for propaganda was created by the Catholic Church? That Amazon’s Alexa device was named in honour of the Library of Alexandria? That the BBC founder Sir John Reith insisted on his newscasters wearing formal dress – even for radio? Winchester never gets round to answering “deeper questions” about knowledge – why, for example, we remember some things better than others. But this is still a “delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter”.
Knowing What We Know by Simon Winchester is available here.