The Paper Trail

An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention

Alexander Monro

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Paperback

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English

Penguin
24 June 2015

History; General & world history; Social & cultural history; Material culture

The story of how a Chinese invention has wrapped itself around our world, with history's most momentous ideas etched upon its surface

The Paper Trail tells the story of how a simple Chinese product has for two millennia allowed knowledge, ideas and religions to spread at an unprecedented rate around the world. Alexander Monro traces this groundbreaking invention's voyage, beginning with the Buddhist translators responsible for its spread across China and Japan, and follows it westward along the Silk Road, where it eventually became the surface of the Quran. Once paper reached Europe, it became indispensable to the scholars who manufactured the Renaissance and Reformation from their desks. As Monro uncovers, paper created a world in which free thinking could flourish, and brought disciplines from science to music into a new age.

By: Alexander Monro
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 281g
ISBN: 9780141039428
ISBN 10: 0141039426
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 24 June 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alexander Monro studied Chinese at the University of Cambridge and in Beijing before working for The Times in London and for Reuters in Shanghai. He has contributed chapters to The Dragon Throne (a history of China's dynasties) and The Seventy Great Journeys in History, and edited two travel poetry anthologies, including China: City and Exile. In 2011, he won the Royal Society of Literature's Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction for The Paper Trail, his first book. He lives with his wife in the Cotswolds, and writes on contemporary China.