The Information Master – Louis XIV’S Knowledge Manager
From the post:
I recently read The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert‘s Secret State Intelligence System by Jacob Soll. It is a very readable but scholarly book that tells the story of how Colbert used the accumulation of knowledge to build a highly efficient administrative system and to promote his own political career. He seems to have been the first person to seize upon the notion of “evidence-based” politics and that knowledge, information and data collection, and scholarship could be used to serve the interests of statecraft. In this way he is an ancestor of much of the thinking that is commonplace not only in today’s political administrations but also in all organizations that value the collection and management of information. The principle sits at the heart of what we mean by the “knowledge economy”.
If you aren’t curious about this book by the time you finish the review, you must have landed on this post by mistake. 😉
Seriously, the information issues that bedevil us now are not new.
It is only our collective ignorance of the past that makes them seem new.
Very high on my personal reading list.