A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet

by Marshall T. Poe

Overview

A History of Communications advances a new theory of media that explains the origins and impact of different forms of communication – speech, writing, print, electronic devices, and the Internet – on human history in the long term. New media are “pulled” into widespread use by broad historical trends and these media, once in widespread use, “push” social institutions and beliefs in predictable directions. This view allows us to see for the first time what is truly new about the Internet, what is not, and where it is taking us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521179447
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/06/2010
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,047,507
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Marshall T. Poe, Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa, is the author or editor of several books, including A People Born to Slavery: Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography (2000), The Russian Elite in the Seventeenth Century (2004) and The Russian Moment in World History (2006). He is the co-founder and editor of Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History and founder and host of 'New Books in History' (http://newbooksinhistory.com), as well as a former writer and editor for the Atlantic Monthly. Professor Poe has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton University), Harriman Institute (Columbia University) and the Kennan Institute (Washington, DC).

Table of Contents

Tables and Charts vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Media Causes and Media Effects 1

1 Homo loquens: Humanity in the Age of Speech 26

2 Homo scriptor: Humanity in the Age of Manuscripts 61

3 Homo lector: Humanity in the Age of Print 101

4 Homo videns: Humanity in the Age of Audiovisual Media 152

5 Homo somnians: Humanity in the Age of the Internet 202

Conclusion: The Media and Human Well-Being 251

Notes 277

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

"Based on a truly impressive range (as well as amount) of reading, arguing an original and convincing thesis, and written in a lucid and engaging style, this book deserves to reach a wide audience of students and scholars alike." - Peter Burke, University of Cambridge

"The ambition and sweep of Marshall Poe's analysis of media make it different from anything else I have read on the topic. Many modern 'consumers' of media, in all its forms, have a vague sense that technological advances are altering their sense of the world in ways they can't fully appreciate in real time. Poe's book is a big advance in helping citizens understand the opportunities and problems the new media landscape offers." - James Fallows, The Atlantic

"A History of Communications is clearly a labor of love, and Poe brings the historian's craft to bear on it." -Science, Christopher Kelty

From the Publisher