The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300180817)

A cutting-edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic, which attempts to answer the crucial question: 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 servers: 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.

Author: Markus Krajewski
ISBN-10: 0300180810
ISBN-13: 9780300180817
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/19/2018
Pages: 456
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2018