The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque

by Markus Krajewski, Ilinca Iurascu (Translator)

A cutting-edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic, which attempts to answer the crucial Who is in charge, the servant or the master?

Though classic servants like the butler or the governess have largely vanished, the Internet is filled with web, ftp, mail, and others perform their daily drudgery, going about their business noiselessly and unnoticed. Why then are current†‘day digital drudges called servers? Markus Krajewski explores this question by going from the present back to the Baroque to study historical aspects of service through various perspectives, be it the servants’ relationship to architecture or their function in literary or scientific contexts. At the intersection of media studies, cultural history, and literature, this work recounts the gradual transition of agency from human to nonhuman actors to show how the concept of the digital server stems from the classic role of the servant.

456 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2018

About the author

Markus Krajewski is professor of media history at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Paper Machines: About Cards and Catalogs, 1548–1929 and World Projects: Global Information Before World War I, which was awarded the 2007 Prize of the German Society for the History of Medicine, Science and Technology. He also works as a software developer and maintainer of his bibliography software Synapsen: A Hypertextual Card Index (www.synapsen.ch).

Reviews

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit academic, to put it mildly, this book traces the history and notion of "the server", as in computer server and servants. Wonderfully written and translated, he outlines his theory that humans using a computer are merely mimicking the traditional servant/master relationship of old. An interesting look at the history of servants and the act of serving (and all that it entails).