"Examining texts from different information ages in Europe and the United States, Ronald E. Day argues that the history of information culture in the twentieth century ideologically shapes the very form for history and historicity in modernity." "After laying the groundwork and justifying his method of close reading for this study, Day examines the texts of two pre-World War II documentalists, Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet. Through the work of Otlet and Briet, Day shows how documentation and information were associated with notions of cultural progress. Both writers understood documentation to reflect historical progress as well as to rationally create social order and community."--Jacket.