How Things Got Better: Speech, Writing, Printing, and Cultural Change
Language: English
Published by Praeger, 1995
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: -OnTimeBooks-, Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.-OnTimeBooks-
AbeBooks seller since March 9, 2023
Condition: Used - Good
£ 25.24
Quantity: 1 available
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A copy that has been read, remains in good condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine and cover show signs of wear. Pages can include notes and highlighting and show signs of wear, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item! Ships via media mail.
Seller Inventory # OTV.0897894316.G
- Title
- How Things Got Better: Speech, Writing, Printing, and Cultural Change
- Author
- Perkinson, Henry
- Publisher
- Praeger
- Publication year
- 1995
- Condition
- good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0897894316
- ISBN 13
- 9780897894319
Adopting the currently unfashionable theory that Western culture has improved over time, Perkinson argues that media of communication have played a pivotal role in helping to make things better. He shows how human speech, when it first emerged, enabled people both to understand better the world they inhabited and to construct political, economic, and social arrangements that improved their life chances. With the invention of writing in Sumer, and especially following the invention of the phonetic alphabet in Greece, people were able to devise even better understandings and improved arrangements. The invention of the printing press in the late 15th century led to the creation of the modern nation state, capitalism, an open society, and modern science.
According to this novel interpretation, media of communication encode the existing culture, thereby enabling people to become critical of it in ways not possible before. This criticism uncovers inadequacies, which, when eliminated, result in an improved culture. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of the history of communications and Western civilization.
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-OnTimeBooks-
Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 9, 2023
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