From cuneiform tablets and birch bark scrolls to medieval codices, from paperbacks and books on tape to e-readers, text technologies have played important roles in many cultures. In this course, students explore the history of the book and adjacent text technologies, and how these technologies have shaped and been shaped by authorship, reading, publishing, and politics at different times and in different places. Subjects include the production, composition, circulation, interpretation, reception, management, and destruction of material texts.