MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04458fam a2200469 a 4500
001 1449383
005 20220602040247.0
008 930625s1994 ilua b 001 0 eng
010 $a 93026718
020 $a0226508358 (cloth : alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)28423039
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm28423039
035 $9AHX0211CU
035 $a(NNC)1449383
035 $a1449383
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC
041 1 $aeng$hfre
050 00 $aZ40$b.M3713 1994
082 00 $a411/.09$220
100 1 $aMartin, Henri-Jean,$d1924-2007.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50040929
240 10 $aHistoire et pouvoirs de l'ecrit.$lEnglish$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n93061305
245 14 $aThe history and power of writing /$cHenri-Jean Martin ; translated by Lydia G. Cochrane.
260 $aChicago :$bUniversity of Chicago Press,$c1994.
300 $axv, 591 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 513-560) and index.
505 0 $aForeword / Pierre Chaunu -- 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.
520 $aCultural history on a grand scale, this immensely readable book is the story of writing from its very beginnings to its recent transformations through technology. Traversing four millennia, Martin shows how the written word originated, how it spread, and how it figured in the evolution of civilization.
520 8 $aIn pursuit of writing's origins, Henri-Jean Martin asks how much those origins owed to practical necessity, and how much to religious and social systems of symbols. He describes the precursors to writing and reveals its place in early civilizations as a mnemonic device in service of the spoken word. The tenacity of the oral tradition plays an important part in this history.
520 8 $aAll written texts were normally read aloud well into the thirteenth century, Martin notes, and even as late as the eighteenth century the concept of "taking notes" was largely unknown to educated individuals trained in classical rhetoric and arts of memory.
520 8 $aThe story of writing is also a history of technology, and Martin charts the progress of the written word from Sumerian clay tablets to papyrus to paper and the advent of the printing press. His discussion of technology and materials details the development of standardized writing as well, placing such innovations as spacing and capital letters in relation to the increased use and demystification of writing.
520 8 $aPaying particular attention to the technological advances that took place in Germany, Martin chronicles the growing importance of printing right down to its explicit role in the spread and success of the Protestant Reformation. He shows how these technological and cultural movements gathered impetus with the Industrial Revolution, when literacy became preeminent.
520 8 $a.
520 8 $aContinuing on to the electronic revolution, Martin's account takes in the changes wrought on writing by computers and electronic systems of storage and communication, and offers surprising insights into the influence these new technologies have had on children born into the computer age. The power of writing to influence and dominate is, indeed, a central theme in this history, as Martin explores the processes by which the written word has gradually imposed its logic on society over four thousand years.
520 8 $a. The summation of decades of study by one of the world's great scholars on the subject, this fascinating account of writing explains much about the world we inhabit, where we uneasily confer, accept, and resist the power of the written word.
650 0 $aWriting$xHistory.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85148638
650 0 $aPrinting$xHistory.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85106759
650 0 $aBooks and reading$xHistory.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007102092
650 0 $aWritten communication$xHistory.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2010119862
852 00 $bglx$hZ40$i.M3713 1994