This book's playful title announces both its subject and its tone. Duncan, a professor of English, opens by observing that "the humble back-of-book index…is one of those inventions that are so successful…that they can often become invisible." Then the author makes visible its development and refinement. This may sound like dry stuff, but the narrative both sparkles with geeky wit (the plural form indices is "for mathematicians and economists") and shines with an infectious enthusiasm, as when the author celebrates the blurry impression of the very first page number. In the early chapters, Duncan discusses the development of the physical book, a survey that includes such delicious moments as the examination of a faithfully copied but useless medieval index to a book whose original had different pagination. He follows a mostly chronological, march-through--Western Civilization organization--any analogous systems used for organizing information in non-Western cultures go unmentioned. Within this structure, Duncan ranges back and forth in history. In the chapter on Renaissance-era scholars' anxiety that an index would lead readers to skip the book proper, he touches on both Socrates' skepticism of written language and modern-day hand-wringing at the effects of the internet on reading. A chapter on the emergence of the "weaponized index" treats readers to some epically funny battles in snark. The book's illustrations are few but well chosen, presenting both the odd marginal symbol Duncan likens to "a snake holding a machine gun" inked by a 13th-century scholar, and the cheeky "Hi!" William F. Buckley wrote next to the index entry for Mailer, Norman in a gifted copy of his memoir. Duncan brings his chronicle into the digital present before closing with not one, but two indexes: a machine-generated one and a human-compiled one, by Paula Clarke Bain, member of the Society of Indexers, whose wit matches the author's and underscores his passionate appreciation of the art. Always erudite, frequently funny, and often surprising--a treat for lovers of the book qua book. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A book's index is often taken for granted by the modern reader. However, this tool for retrieving information is neither humble nor invisible and deserves such an in-depth consideration as Duncan (English, Univ. Coll. London; The Oulipo and Modern Thought) delivers here, with a balance of humor and intellectualism. The index has a rather recent history, Duncan writes, as it requires page numbers, which only came into use in the 15th century. Early indexes were, at times, novelties, until scholars realized that integrating page numbers with an alphabetical list would facilitate access to wisdom. As Duncan tells it, authors have sometimes delivered subtle jabs at their peers or subjects by slipping pejoratives and commentary into their indexes; in the digital age, Twitter's hashtags index one's thoughts in a similar manner. Duncan's research on indexes is exhaustive, and there's an unexpected level of hilarity here. He contends that the modern book--and thought itself--would be diminished if the index had never been invented. Perhaps most enjoyable are Duncan's 32-page index and the black-and-white photographs of historical book indexes. VERDICT Backmatter has never enjoyed such a spotlight; sure to amuse bibliophiles and casual readers alike.--Jessica Bushore

Duncan (coeditor, Book Parts), a lecturer in English at University College London, mixes humor and scholarship to brilliant effect in this accessible deep dive into the history of indexes. Contending that indexes have had a profound yet overlooked impact on the evolution of human knowledge, he highlights key innovations in the centuries-long development of this search tool, including the trend towards putting words in alphabetical order; the shift from scrolls to codexes, whose page numbers were crucial to the creation of a usable index; and the rise of medieval universities, where scholars needed "new ways of efficiently finding parcels of text." Characterizing the index as the precursor to Google search, Duncan dismisses fears that an overreliance on search engines will diminish humans' cognitive abilities as "nothing more than a recent outbreak of an old fever." Despite long-standing worries that indexes will reduce engagement with books and alter reading habits and attention spans for the worse ("the book index: killing off experimental curiosity since the seventeenth century"), Duncan makes a persuasive argument that it is natural for reading methods and text technology to evolve in order to make information easier to find. Readers of this enlightening and entertaining survey won't take the humble index for granted again. (Feb.)