Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History from the Alphabet to the Internet - Rilegato

Bernstein, William J.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0802121381 ISBN 13: 9780802121387

Casa editrice: Grove Pr, 2013

Riassunto

From the birth of writing in Mesopotamia to the communication technologies of today, a financial theorist and historian documents the technology of human media - a revolutionary tool that allowed rulers to extend their control far and wide, giving rise to the world's first empires.

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Recensione:

[Bernstein] enables us to see what remains the same, even as much has changed: Henry VIII had William Tyndale burned at the stake for making the Bible available in English; today, dictators and their henchmen beat up and murder protesters by the hundreds, likewise (simply put) to maintain control of information.” Library Journal, Editors’ Picks”

In Masters of the Word, a master storyteller, synthesizer, and historian shows us how the power of the word has toppled tyrants. I love reading what Bernstein writes.” Ed Tower, Professor of Economics, Duke University

Masters of the Word takes you on a fascinating trip, from the invention of writing to the creation of the world-wide Web. Bernstein masterfully describes not just the inventions and the inventors that created modern media, but the forces underlying their impact. Riveting and thoroughly researched, it brims with interesting ideas and astonishing connections.” Phil Lapsley, author of Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell

Fascinating an engaging mix of theory, fact and enlightenment from across the millennia that wears its rich scholarship lightly.” Peter Preston, The Guardian (UK)

[Bernstein’s] narrative is succinct and extremely well sourced. . . . [He] reminds us of a number of technologies whose changed roles are less widely chronicled in conventional histories of the media.” Irish Times

This sweeping, although selective, historical narrative by award-winning financial historian Bernstein elucidates in highly readable fashion the role of media’ in which he includes advances from ancient alphabets to movable type to twenty-first-century technology in shaping civilization and determining democratic versus despotic tendencies. Bernstein’s thesis that power accrues to the literate’ should not be taken simplistically; his larger arguments are learned and elegantly made. His occasional invocation of modern phenomena in a nonmodern context lend charm and clarity to what might have otherwise been dauntingly erudite. Instead, Bernstein offers an accessible, quite enjoyable, and highly informative read that will hold surprises even for those familiar with some of the history he covers.” Mark Levine, Booklist

"Fascinating."—Irish Examiner

L'autore:

Willliam J. Berstein is a financial theorist and historian whose books includeThe Four Pillars of Investing and A Splendid Exchange. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Grove Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0802121381
• ISBN 13: 9780802121387
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 420