“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 19th-century emergence of mass print culture • Predicts effects of the digital revolution on disciplinarity, expertise, and the institutional restructuring of the humanities