As a graduate student at Oxford in 1963, I began writing about books in revolutionary France, helping to found the discipline of book history. I was in my academic corner writing about Enlightenment ideals when the Internet exploded the world of academic communication in the 1990s.

Robert Darnton’s quote reflects on his academic journey and the evolution of academic communication. He begins by mentioning his time as a graduate student at Oxford in 1963, where he focused on studying books in revolutionary France and contributed to the founding of the discipline of book history. Darnton’s work revolved around understanding the role of books in shaping historical and intellectual movements, particularly in the context of the Enlightenment ideals that defined the period.

Darnton then contrasts his scholarly focus on the past with the dramatic changes that took place in the 1990s, when the Internet revolutionized academic communication. The rise of the Internet fundamentally altered how academic knowledge was exchanged, making it faster, more accessible, and less reliant on traditional print media. This shift significantly changed the way scholars interacted, shared ideas, and published their work, a transformation that Darnton likely experienced firsthand.

The quote also highlights the contrast between Darnton’s historical focus on printed materials and the technological advances that disrupted the traditional academic landscape. As a historian of the Enlightenment, Darnton was deeply immersed in a time before the rapid exchange of information, while the advent of the Internet reshaped the very nature of communication and learning in his field and beyond. His work on books, once tied to a slower, more methodical process, now existed within a landscape defined by the instantaneous flow of information.

Ultimately, Darnton’s quote underscores the tension between the traditional methods of academic research and the transformative impact of the Internet on scholarly communication. His experience reflects how the academic world has had to adapt to the evolving nature of information exchange, with the rise of the Internet forcing scholars to rethink how knowledge is produced, distributed, and consumed.