Who knew?

… The radical power of the book index - Prospect Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Only through overcoming fierce resistance did indexes develop into the indispensable tools we know today

Duncan is aware that the index is a specialist area of interest. But by dissecting its history and its workings, he also shows that the vast majority of people who use indexes—anyone, really, who has ever read a work of non-fiction—take them for granted. His book is both an entertaining and edifying journey through index-history and a spirited defence of the index (and indexers) in the technological age. It is precisely because indexing is a rarefied sport that it is worth saving.