The Filing Cabinet

How we store information reflects the aspirations we have about what to remember. Taking this idea to heart, Craig Robertson's essential history of the filing cabinet is the definitive account of verticality and efficiency as guiding principles for corporate capitalism. -Melissa Gregg, senior principal engineer, Client Computing Group, Intel Craig Robertson's book offers a fascinating account of how the humble file cabinet and the associated practice of filing shaped the emergence of modern conceptions of information. These influences continue to reverberate-from the organization of our computer desktops to our assumptions about 'information' as a discrete entity that can be stored, manipulated, and retrieved. A significant contribution to media studies and information studies. -Jennifer S. Light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology* In this fascinating history, Craig Robertson shows how a seemingly mundane thing was central to the rise of modern bureaucracies, information society, and the gendered relations of office labor. Wonderfully researched and full of surprises, The Filing Cabinet explores an object and a system that orchestrated new ways of knowing, remembering, and experiencing the world. -Lynn Spigel, Northwestern University [The filing cabinet] worked to blur the past into the present with active storage; and the future into the present by encouraging forethought. The Filing Cabinet would be particularly helpful for researchers who want to write about media materialism without getting lost in the minutiae of model numbers. -LSE Review of Books [Robertson's] prowess for raiding an archive is formidable, and he has a talent for cherry-picking unusual details. -Washington Examiner Captivating . . . the filing cabinet, despite its deep roots in our contemporary information architecture, is just one step in our epistemological journey, not its end. -The Atlantic Timely, incisive, and impressively imaginative. -The New Rambler If you're a reader who relishes the unconventional, if you've pondered arcane subjects at odd times, or if you want a conversation-breaker at the water cooler, find The Filing Cabinet. Yep, this is the book you need now. -Idaho Press Robertson persuasively sets out the ways in which domestic furniture and organising practices were reshaped to mirror those found in offices. -Literary Review A useful and thought-provoking text for those of us dependent on the filing cabinet and the subsequent technologies they inspire, this book deserves a wider readership in both the art historical and cultural studies fields. -College & Research Libraries Robertson eloquently describes the historical account of the filing cabinet. -International Journal of Communication