Breaking the Book is a manifesto on the cognitive consequences and emotional effects of human interactions with physical books that reveals why the traditional humanities disciplines are resistant to 'digital' humanities.

• Explores the reasons why the traditional humanities disciplines are resistant to 'digital humanities'
• Reveals facets of book history, offering it as an example of how different media shape our modes of thinking and feeling   
• Gathers together the most important book history and literary criticism concerning the hundred years leading up to the early 19^th-century emergence of mass print culture
• Predicts effects of the digital revolution on disciplinarity, expertise, and the institutional restructuring of the humanities