Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word [Paperback]

William Sonn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0810852624 | ISBN-13: 978-0810852624 | Publication Date: February 14, 2006

Four times in western history: in the 1400s, the early 1800s, the 1880s, and again in the mid-20th century, we learned to duplicate and disseminate the printed word more cheaply. And each time strange events followed.

For with each of these changes in the gritty production of glamorous content, expensive and secret bodies of knowledge abruptly became cheap and easy to spread. Once-rare and sometimes disorienting impressions rained down on once-sheltered folks. New and otherwise inexpert hands mixed them into whole new breeds of information, myth, logic, and viewpoints. There were fantastic scientific advances, mass migrations, bold social experiments, financial upheavals, and much bloodshed. In the harrowing decades that followed, powerful new kinds of governments, businesses, and groups came to elbow aside old ones. In all of these periods, there were great, creaking shifts in politics, wealth, religions, and even the way we learn, think, and see. And in the last decade, the costs of producing and distributing printed knowledge have fallen a fifth time, far and fast and almost to free.

Paradigms Lost traces the history of the accidents, inventions, forces, eccentrics, and geniuses who accelerated information in the past, examines what happened each time they succeeded, and provides some background for what, if the past is any guide, may be coming.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...will please anyone who loves history. (Bookviews )

Must reading for anyone involved in printing, typesetting or graphic design...a fascinating look at the printed word! (Design, Typography, & Graphics Monthly )

...an energetically written history of print technology that shows how changes in type production have had profound effects on society. (College & Research Library News )

...Sonn's telling of the history of print [is]...engaging. (Color Business Report )

...amazingly detailed....extremely useful as a research tool. (vol. 67, no. 6 College & Research Libraries )

...Sonn's telling of the history of print [is]...engaging..... (Color Business Report )

Colorado-based historian and writer Sonn describes the inventions and forces that shaped information processes in the past, providing a background for what the future may hold. In a conversational yet information-filled narrative he recounts the evolution of the printed word over the past 160,000 years, lightly touching on "primordial scratches" and proceeding to the birth of type (what he describes as "from hand to lever"), the age of type ("from lever to machine"), and the end of type ("from machine to math"), then concluding with "life after type." (Reference & Research Book News )

William Sonn is at his best... (Times Literary Supplement )

Sonn is an excellent writer and, judging by the wealth of footnotes and extensive bibliography, a dogged researcher, too. (American Printer )

...a valuable documentary record. (Libraries & The Cultural Record )

About the Author

William Sonn is a writer (Outside, Chicago, and The Progressive) and senior publishing and marketing executive. Bill, his family, his dog and his firm (Business Development Communications) reside in Denver.

Product Details

• Paperback: 398 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810852624
• ISBN-13: 978-0810852624
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,711,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Shock of Recognition, June 13, 2006

By 

Dr. Majestic (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word (Paperback)

Saw some of the reviews for this book and thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I was immensely impressed with William Sonn's well researched and written book. There is no academic dryness or gobbledegook at all. The story of man's way out of darkness and into the light is inspiring. And there is never a dull moment. There is a sort of future shock quality to the book, but one does not feel overwhelmed or threatened, as I have been with similar narratives -- which are usually written by professors who don't know how to communicate complex ideas to the lay reader. Sonn cares about people and his subject and that care comes through on every page. The comprehensive nature of the book is really awesome. I found the notes (neatly tacked to the end of each chapter) illuminating and food for further thought and reading on this fascinating subject.

He turns out interesting sentences. Referring to the changes brought about by the introduction of printing, Sonn writes, "So it was that in the last half of the fifteenth century an abrupt new communications tool lobbed scores of ideas into unfamiliar environments. Human memory seemed to expand." Bringing in one famous critic of the church's pretense to virtue, he says, "In the 1490s, a mordantly funny Dutch hypochondriac named Erasmus slowly gained a reputation among a tiny circle of priests and academics as an agile writer, thorough scholar, sharp thinker, and skilled puncturer of hypocrisy."

Paradigms Lost tells the story of how ordinary people of the past never had a chance to learn or become educated until the cost of obtaining information was drastically reduced. Each time some new method of writing or transmission came along, the people benefited, although the bigshots in this world didn't like it. The church, the king, the state or simply the powers that be tried like heck to hold back the advance of civilization. But as knowledge became cheaper and democratic, we all came out ahead.

My one complaint would be that I wish there was a more extensive index. I keep looking things up to go over them again, and a more elaborate index would speed up searching.

A highly accomplished book that is highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Instant Classic, June 12, 2006

By 

Book Nut (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word (Paperback)

William Sonn's Paradigms Lost has all of the earmarks of a classic work. This book is profound, enormously instructive, exciting and just a hell of a lot of fun. Written in a crystal clear and contemporary mode, it explains where we came from and where we're going -- from the weak light of isolated and primitive societies to the powerful and collective forces of the world wide web. It is a swiftly paced read that will interest anyone with a taste for history, popular culture or the growth of educated man.

The author begins modestly enough, but then quickly proceeds to unroll an intellectual and stylistic masterpiece of mind-expanding (not to say numbing) scope. It is the kind of book that makes you feel smart and with-it, ahead of the pack. Get hold of it, turn off the TV, and read. You will be well rewarded.

Sonn works with the whole concept of how words and pictures (and thus, knowledge) have been produced, developed and transmitted throughout history. But he goes much further. The book focuses its penetrating lens on a hefty though simple premise: whenever there is a technological change in how we write down, or preserve, or pass on information it is accompanied by upheavals in institutions, governments, wars, industries, religions and civilization as a whole. Sonn shows with extensive documentation how these advances cause a shift in our center of gravity and how the momentum of progress is accelerated. In a way, it is about the heroic rise of man's mental life. Paradigms Lost is a unified field theory of brain power and cerebral propulsion.

Sonn elucidates how knowledge/information was originally in the hands of the world's elite, locking out everyone else from knowing things, keeping them ignorant and in their place. The average person's 'thinking' was confined to a little box of local customs, habits, prejudices and superstitions. Learning was expensive and beyond the means of nearly everyone. Acquiring knowledge was even outright dangerous. But as alphabets, writing and then printing came into being (Sonn tells that epoch-making story with freshness and originality) the cost of knowledge fell sharply and the whole world could wise up faster and more broadly. This changed everything, as the age of computers and extended media continues to do today.

No doubt some nit-pickers will seize upon a few of the book's missteps (Sonn is apparently human). One learned reviewer on this site cites a few of these editorial misfirings. But to dismiss this important book because of them is akin to saying that Columbus did not really discover the New World (since he made frequent gaffs in celestial navigation) but simply bumped into it. Columbus's audacious undertakings paid off handsomely despite any errors along the way; so has Mr. Sonn's efforts.

Sharp folks be warned: you ignore this book at your own peril.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprise inside, May 5, 2006

By 

Sam I am (CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word (Paperback)

I was so surprised by this book. It traces the history of the printed word and how society has been deeply affected each time the method of print delivery has changed. It reminded me of Tom Friedman's The World is Flat, in that it made me view things in a new way. It is so readable, and funny, that I wish Sonn would write more history - maybe textbooks for my kids. I'll admit that there were times where I skimmmed a bit, but I found myself even reading footnotes, something I never do.