The history and power of writing
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The history and power of writing
University of Chicago Press, c1994
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Histoire et pouvoirs de l'écrit
Available at 35 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780226508351
Description
This text is a study of writing from its very beginnings to its recent transformations through technology. Traversing four millennia, the author offers a chronicle of writing as a cultural system, a means of communication and a history of technologies. He shows how the written word originated, how it spread and how it figured in the evolution of civilization. An examination of the interactions of individuals and cultures to produce forms of "writing" in the many senses of authorship, language rendition and script is also included. The text examines to what extent the development of writing is owed to practical necessity and how much to religious and social systems of symbols. It describes the precursors to writing and reveals their place in early civilization as devices in service of the spoken word. The tenacity of the oral tradition plays an important part in this text - even as late as the 18th century educated individuals were trained in classical rhetoric and preferred to rely on the arts of memory.
Finally, Martin discusses the changes to writing wrought by the electronic revolution, offering insights into the influence these new technologies have had on children born into the computer age.
Table of Contents
Foreword Pierre Chaunu Acknowledgments 1: Writing Systems 2: The Written and the Spoken Word 3: Speech and Letters 4: The Death and Resurrection of Written Culture 5: The Arrival of Print 6: The Reign of the Book 7: The Forms and Functions of Writing: Fifteenth-Eighteenth Centuries 8: The Book and Society 9: The Industrial Era 10: Beyond Writing Conclusion Notes Index
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780226508368
Description
This study is the story of writing from its very beginnings to its recent transformations through technology. Traversing four millennia, Martin offers a chronicle of writing as a cultural system, a means of communication and a history of technologies. He shows how the written word originated, how it spread and how it figured in the evolution of civilization. Using as his centre the role of printing in making the written way of thinking dominant, Martin examines the interactions of individuals and cultures to produce new forms of "writing" in the many senses of authorship, language rendition and script. Martin looks at how much the development of writing owed to practical necessity, and how much to religious and social systems of symbols. He describes the precursors to writing and reveals their place in early civilization as devices in service of the spoken word. The tenacity of the oral tradition plays an important part in this story as, even as late as the 18th century, educated individuals were trained in classical rhetoric and preferred to rely on the arts of memory.
Finally, Martin discusses the changes to writing wrought by the electronic revolution, offering insights into the influence these new technologies have had on children born into the computer age.
by "Nielsen BookData"