A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet [Paperback]

Asa Briggs (Author), Peter Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0745623751 | ISBN-13: 978-0745623757 | Edition: 1

Written by two leading social and cultural historians, A Social History of the Media provides a masterful overview of communication media and of the social and cultural contexts within which they emerged and evolved over time. The authors retrace the complex and multiple paths of development, exploring the interrelations between communication media and other aspects of social life.

The scope of this book is far-reaching, exploring the history of the different means of communication in the West from the invention of printing to the Internet. It deals with each constituent element in what came to be called 'the media' and discusses, among other things, the continuing importance of oral and manuscript communication, the rise of print, the relationship between physical transportation and social communication, and the development of electronic media. The book concludes with an account of the convergences associated with digital communication technology, the rise of the internet and the phenomenon of globalization.

Avoiding technological determinism and rejecting assumptions of straightforward evolutionary progress, this book brings out the rich and varied histories of communication media. It will be an ideal text for students in history, media and cultural studies and journalism, but it will also appeal to a wide general readership.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Every new mode of communication provokes passionate debate about its moral and social repercussions. Today we fret over the negative influence of television and the Internet; in the 16th century, it was feared that reading would arouse dangerous emotions, especially in women. Briggs (chancellor, Open Univ.) and Burke (Eyewitnessing) present many such parallels in this overview of media history. They also assert that no medium has ever completely supplanted another. Given their belief in the nonlinear evolution of media, the text moves dizzyingly back and forth, at times verging on stream of consciousness: "The ability to get to Mars would depend on advances in space communications, and this already had its own history in 1960, a point to which we must now return." The index (not seen) and a meticulous chronology should help to alleviate confusion. Readers may feel frustrated, however, by the lack of explanatory notes; the suggested reading for each chapter rarely gives the source for particular quotations or assertions. Recommended for academic libraries needing a general survey of media history. Susan M. Colowick, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

'A masterpiece of compression and synthesis. It manages to omit nothing and yet present itself as something much more readable than a hurried review of a vast terrain. It is thoroughly comprehensive. The styles of the two writers mesh very well together. They have adopted an approach which is partly that of a reference work and partly that of a flowing historical discourse. This work has the virtue of being almost an encyclopaedia and so it will be a vital tool for a wide variety of readers.' Professor Anthony Smith, Magdalen College, University of Oxford

'Recommended for academic libraries needing a general survey of media history ' Library Journal

"An intelligent, scholarly and eminently sensible introduction to the kind of methodological issues it is actually helpful to address" English Historical Review

"A very readable book." European Journal of Communication

"A Social History of the Media is full of illuminating details and quotations. [It] is an ideal textbook for students and a lesson to professional historians that they need to take the media seriously as a subject in its own right." Bert Hogenkamp, IRSH vol. 49 (2004)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (January 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745623751
• ISBN-13: 978-0745623757
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good information, but, February 18, 2011

By 

Alan Ganger "AL" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet (Paperback)

The book has a lot of arcane references. It tries to cover a lot of different aspects regarding the impact of communication media, but if you're looking for a "big picture" book, this might not be for you. It doesn't always connect the dots. It jumps between a lot of very specific examples. You sometimes wonder where they pull an example from. Ah, yes, Charles V visiting Bologna in 1529, of course. I remember it well. An example from the chapter on print:

"In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, small books became popular, the octavo, for instance, or the still smaller 12mo or 16mo format, which the famous Venetian printer Aldo Manuzio used for his editions of the classics."

The authors drop a lot of knowledge like this throughout the book, not always with enough context. But it's sort of up to you to follow up with some of these historical events or figures if you want to know more about it.

Edit: Ah, the authors are from the UK? I was wondering why John Logie Baird got more attention than Philo Pharnsworth.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great read, December 17, 2003

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phil jones (Brasilia, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet (Paperback)

Like other books I've read by Peter Burke, this is a great and informative work. Here he covers the "print revolution in context" showing the who, where, and how of the rise of printing, and discussing it's interaction with the continuing other media types such as oral communication, hand-written documents and visual images (woodcut printing, religious paintings and statuary). He also shows the political and religious conflicts and issues which are locked in a feedback loop with the development of the media.

Fascinating to compare to the rise of modern media types like weblogs in conjunction with the present political discourse.