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Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History
William J. Bernstein’s A Splendid How Trade Shaped the World , an Economist and Financial Times Best Book of the Year, placed him firmly among the top flight of historians like Jared Diamond and Bill Bryson, capable of distilling major trends and reams of information into insightful, globe-spanning popular narrative.
Bernstein explains how new communication technologies and in particular our access to them, impacted human society. Writing was born thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Spreading to Sumer, and then Egypt, this revolutionary tool allowed rulers to extend their control far and wide, giving rise to the world’s first empires. When Phoenician traders took their alphabet to Greece, literacy’s first boom led to the birth of drama and democracy. In Rome, it helped spell the downfall of the Republic. Later, medieval scriptoria and vernacular bibles gave rise to religious dissent, and with the combination of cheaper paper and Gutenberg’s printing press, the fuse of Reformation was lit.
The Industrial Revolution brought the telegraph and the steam driven printing press, allowing information to move faster than ever before and to reach an even larger audience. But along with radio and television, these new technologies were more easily exploited by the powerful, as seen in Germany, the Soviet Union, even Rwanda, where radio incited genocide. With the rise of carbon duplicates (Russian samizdat), photocopying (the Pentagon Papers), the internet, social media and cell phones (the recent Arab Spring) more people have access to communications, making the world more connected than ever before.
In Masters of the Word , Bernstein masterfully guides the reader through the vast history of communications, illustrating each step with colorful stories and anecdotes. This is a captivating, enlightening book, one that will change the way you look at technology, history, and power.
Bernstein explains how new communication technologies and in particular our access to them, impacted human society. Writing was born thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Spreading to Sumer, and then Egypt, this revolutionary tool allowed rulers to extend their control far and wide, giving rise to the world’s first empires. When Phoenician traders took their alphabet to Greece, literacy’s first boom led to the birth of drama and democracy. In Rome, it helped spell the downfall of the Republic. Later, medieval scriptoria and vernacular bibles gave rise to religious dissent, and with the combination of cheaper paper and Gutenberg’s printing press, the fuse of Reformation was lit.
The Industrial Revolution brought the telegraph and the steam driven printing press, allowing information to move faster than ever before and to reach an even larger audience. But along with radio and television, these new technologies were more easily exploited by the powerful, as seen in Germany, the Soviet Union, even Rwanda, where radio incited genocide. With the rise of carbon duplicates (Russian samizdat), photocopying (the Pentagon Papers), the internet, social media and cell phones (the recent Arab Spring) more people have access to communications, making the world more connected than ever before.
In Masters of the Word , Bernstein masterfully guides the reader through the vast history of communications, illustrating each step with colorful stories and anecdotes. This is a captivating, enlightening book, one that will change the way you look at technology, history, and power.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2013
161 people are currently reading
1560 people want to read
About the author
William J. Bernstein
24 books468 followersWilliam J. Bernstein is an American financial theorist and neurologist. His research is in the field of modern portfolio theory and he has published books for individual investors who wish to manage their own equity portfolios. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
December 31, 2019
No book has influence me like this book. I will never forget any word I have read in this book. Any review would be a spoiler, because it is very informative book from cover to cover. Highly recommend for those who are interested in the history of human history in the fields of language, writing, and media.
August 5, 2013
Masters of the Word focuses more on the technology of media (such as the printing press and Internet) than on the content. While it contained some interesting facts about publishing, it could have been much more interesting if it focused more on propaganda and the effects of media.
October 29, 2015
This book does an excellent job of showing how the development of language (alphabets, words, reading, and writing) and advances that made wider accessibility to literacy available have paralleled the course of major events in human history.
I have two major complaints with this book.
This first is that Bernstein, at times throughout the book, comes off as an egotistical ultra-literate who is far and away above and beyond all the rest of us little people (the very thing he ostensibly says is an issue in the thesis of this book). You can literally hear him talking down to you as a reader.
The second is that Berstein subtly interjects - at least in the beginning - his subjective opinions (which I disagree with) into what he expressly states is an objective history.
I also completely disagree with his premise in the forward in which he states that humanity is more literate now than ever before and that has kept the dystopian society that George Orwell portrayed in 1984 from ever developing.
The reality is that we are, more than ever, in the grips of dystopia that Orwell presaged and the world is in a second iteration of the Middle Ages, where literacy was almost non-existent and power and control was centralized in a very small and elite group of people at the top of a very elaborate hierarchy.
But I still recommend reading the book as a big-picture history. A lot of this I knew in bits and pieces from my reading over the years, but this book pulled it all together in a chronological and historical context.
I have two major complaints with this book.
This first is that Bernstein, at times throughout the book, comes off as an egotistical ultra-literate who is far and away above and beyond all the rest of us little people (the very thing he ostensibly says is an issue in the thesis of this book). You can literally hear him talking down to you as a reader.
The second is that Berstein subtly interjects - at least in the beginning - his subjective opinions (which I disagree with) into what he expressly states is an objective history.
I also completely disagree with his premise in the forward in which he states that humanity is more literate now than ever before and that has kept the dystopian society that George Orwell portrayed in 1984 from ever developing.
The reality is that we are, more than ever, in the grips of dystopia that Orwell presaged and the world is in a second iteration of the Middle Ages, where literacy was almost non-existent and power and control was centralized in a very small and elite group of people at the top of a very elaborate hierarchy.
But I still recommend reading the book as a big-picture history. A lot of this I knew in bits and pieces from my reading over the years, but this book pulled it all together in a chronological and historical context.
February 23, 2016
Language and communication are what drive the human race forward. I loved this idea, so I was very excited to read this book.
This book, however, jumps from topic to topic, sometimes going through tedious and unnecessary details. Although the premise is to point out the connection between the state of literacy and communication technology with the historical events, the author spends most of the book discussing the historical events and briefly pointing out the the connection to technology.
I found myself breezing through many of the chapters, especially half way through the book where themes started to become repetitive.
Although I feel like a gained a lot from the book, it could have been conveyed in a long article rather than a 400+ page book.
The only chapters I actually enjoyed were the introduction and the last chapter that dealt with modern technology such as the Internet and it's connection to current events, like the Arab Spring
I won't really recommend this book to anyone except those of you who like to read obscure world history.
This book, however, jumps from topic to topic, sometimes going through tedious and unnecessary details. Although the premise is to point out the connection between the state of literacy and communication technology with the historical events, the author spends most of the book discussing the historical events and briefly pointing out the the connection to technology.
I found myself breezing through many of the chapters, especially half way through the book where themes started to become repetitive.
Although I feel like a gained a lot from the book, it could have been conveyed in a long article rather than a 400+ page book.
The only chapters I actually enjoyed were the introduction and the last chapter that dealt with modern technology such as the Internet and it's connection to current events, like the Arab Spring
I won't really recommend this book to anyone except those of you who like to read obscure world history.
February 19, 2016
The last chapter makes me doubt the validity of other chapters in the book. How can someone, in the year 2013, claim that the Internet brought more democracy? I wonder if today, after all the stuff with ISIS and its recruitment over social networks, the author doesn't secretly bang his head against the wall. And how come Mr. Bernstein noticed that tabloid sort of news has eroded the interestingness of that kind of news and yet didn't notice that when EVERYONE can publish his or her thoughts, it devalues those thoughts and just makes for a lot of circulating crap? Nevermind. At least I learned some stuff I didn't know, such as that there used to be no spaces between words.
December 15, 2017
This is more of a survey than an exhaustive history of the print and media. Alphabets, scrolls, Gutenberg, telegraph keep the book rolling until of course a final chapter which explores the advent of the Internet. I found the chapter on the use of copiers in the downfall of the Soviet Union to be especially interesting as that was new to me. This book was published in 2013--so in some ways feels like ancient history.
July 7, 2013
Some nice summary of history, but unfortuantely inaccurate in the parts I already know well (e.g. history of blogging) so makes me suspect it's wrong elsewhere too.
February 6, 2025
Incredibly boring slog to get through. It suffered by being incredibly broad in scope by covering over 2,000 years. It’s hard to write books that broad but this one also contained incredible detail about handpicked events to the point that the whole thread of technology and media was repeatedly lost. I’d read ten straight pages not having a clue where I was. It’s not a bad book, hence spared a 1-star review. But I can’t recommend this to anyone.
August 13, 2017
Review title: The Power of paper
Books on the history of an idea often result in an ungrounded set of generalizations with little practical relevance. Not so with Bernstein's history of the idea of media--language, literacy, publishing, and the modern replication technologies of photocopying, voice and video broadcasting and recording, and the Internet. The intertwined threads if archeology, technology, language, culture, politics, and history make for varied content and writing styles that keep the reader's focus and attention throughout.
Bernstein starts with the invention and improvement of language, specifically written language and alphabets. While it is a twist to think of letters as technology, Bernstein shows how the introduction of vowels to the alphabet and word spacing to documents dramatically increased literacy by simplifying reading comprehension. For each technological advance he writes about Bernstein will show how the advance moved the previous state of the art towards greater accessibility and democratization of its use; in the case of vowels and word spacing, reading was no longer the priviledged and silent deciphering of texts by a literal and literate priesthood for a powerful patron, religion, or government, but could be read out loud to be heard by hundreds and copied to be distributed to be read and heard by hundreds more. The genius of the author here is to bring together seemingly mundane and isolated advances and show how they changed the world.
Similarly, when he gets to Gutenberg's printing press revolution, which most readers including me think they understand, Bernstein shows how in fact the revolution was the result not so much of the idea of the mechanical press, but in the metallurgical advances which enabled the creation of precise and reusable type--and the availability of affordable, high quality, plant-based paper! As a mirror maker familiar with the characteristics of various metals, Gutenberg was uniquely qualified to address the first, and, though his famous Bibles were printed on expensive calfskin vellum, utilize the second. Here is also a good time to introduce two additional principles which Bernstein has discovered applies to each of the technology advances he describes:
1. The new technology is at first very expensive and not available to a critical mass of people. The printing press was an expensive piece of machinery that took a cadre of workers with new skills to maintain and feed. Thus, at the beginning, only those with deep pockets (governments, the Church, wealthy patrons or deep-pocketed investors) owned and operated presses and could control their output.
2. Those who benefitted from the status quo of the previous technology don't understand how the new technology has altered the landscape (although Victor Hugo did, in a fantastic bit quoted here by Bernstein which I referenced in my review of Notre Dame). At the time of Gutenberg the Church had a monopoly on access to printed copies of the Bible because of the cost of literacy, vellum, and scribal knowledge needed to make new copies; it is no coincidence that the first books off Gutenberg's press were Bibles. But what the church didn't understand, as the technology matured, the number of presses and printers spread, and the price per page and per copy decreased, was that they no longer had a monopoly on the written Word. Luther's Protestant revolution would arrive on printed pages from mechanical presses.
Telegraph, radio, and television are the next technologies Bernstein examines that enabled the scalability of words and ideas that come from one person to reach hundreds (oral communication), thousands (written communication), and hundreds of thousands (printed communication), to now reach millions. As Bernstein writes, these were obviously expensive technologies that governments quickly saw needed to be both funded and controlled (through ownership or licensing), and were uniquely one-way communications. His account of how those resistance fighters under totalitarian regimes in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia turned them into two way technologies through personal courage, cultural and technical intelligence, and bungling by collectivist thinking governments, is one of the centerpieces of his argument as he brings it up to the 20th century. He also talks briefly about the easily overlooked invention of the affordable photocopy machine.
The present, of course is the Internet and social media, which fit Bernstein's model well. They were initially expensive technologies that governments first failed to understand and then tried to control as costs came down and access became ubiquitous. He concludes with some balanced consideration of which tendency--democratization or control--will win out in the Internet era. The contest is still in progress four years after his writing (which includes the first Arab Spring Uprising and the Rwanda genocide), but Bernstein provides some analysis and predictions based on economic and cultural metrics which proves usable today. The slow and fitful migration of China toward economic capitalism and democratic openness was an open question for Bernstein, and remains so today.
The multiple disciplines which I listed at the outset that feed into this history keep it fresh and fun to read. If you enjoy archeology and classic language discussions, if you like discussions about arcane technology like paper and typeface making, if you want narrative history about the Reformation (including Wycliffe and the Waldensians, not just Luther), if you enjoy modern history about invention and patent progress, it is all here. Bernstein carries his argument forward with recaps and summaries so if you glaze over on a section of less interest to you he'll catch you up at the end of the chapter and beginning of the next. And of course it is footnoted and includes a bibliography for those who want to dig deeper.
Books on the history of an idea often result in an ungrounded set of generalizations with little practical relevance. Not so with Bernstein's history of the idea of media--language, literacy, publishing, and the modern replication technologies of photocopying, voice and video broadcasting and recording, and the Internet. The intertwined threads if archeology, technology, language, culture, politics, and history make for varied content and writing styles that keep the reader's focus and attention throughout.
Bernstein starts with the invention and improvement of language, specifically written language and alphabets. While it is a twist to think of letters as technology, Bernstein shows how the introduction of vowels to the alphabet and word spacing to documents dramatically increased literacy by simplifying reading comprehension. For each technological advance he writes about Bernstein will show how the advance moved the previous state of the art towards greater accessibility and democratization of its use; in the case of vowels and word spacing, reading was no longer the priviledged and silent deciphering of texts by a literal and literate priesthood for a powerful patron, religion, or government, but could be read out loud to be heard by hundreds and copied to be distributed to be read and heard by hundreds more. The genius of the author here is to bring together seemingly mundane and isolated advances and show how they changed the world.
Similarly, when he gets to Gutenberg's printing press revolution, which most readers including me think they understand, Bernstein shows how in fact the revolution was the result not so much of the idea of the mechanical press, but in the metallurgical advances which enabled the creation of precise and reusable type--and the availability of affordable, high quality, plant-based paper! As a mirror maker familiar with the characteristics of various metals, Gutenberg was uniquely qualified to address the first, and, though his famous Bibles were printed on expensive calfskin vellum, utilize the second. Here is also a good time to introduce two additional principles which Bernstein has discovered applies to each of the technology advances he describes:
1. The new technology is at first very expensive and not available to a critical mass of people. The printing press was an expensive piece of machinery that took a cadre of workers with new skills to maintain and feed. Thus, at the beginning, only those with deep pockets (governments, the Church, wealthy patrons or deep-pocketed investors) owned and operated presses and could control their output.
2. Those who benefitted from the status quo of the previous technology don't understand how the new technology has altered the landscape (although Victor Hugo did, in a fantastic bit quoted here by Bernstein which I referenced in my review of Notre Dame). At the time of Gutenberg the Church had a monopoly on access to printed copies of the Bible because of the cost of literacy, vellum, and scribal knowledge needed to make new copies; it is no coincidence that the first books off Gutenberg's press were Bibles. But what the church didn't understand, as the technology matured, the number of presses and printers spread, and the price per page and per copy decreased, was that they no longer had a monopoly on the written Word. Luther's Protestant revolution would arrive on printed pages from mechanical presses.
Telegraph, radio, and television are the next technologies Bernstein examines that enabled the scalability of words and ideas that come from one person to reach hundreds (oral communication), thousands (written communication), and hundreds of thousands (printed communication), to now reach millions. As Bernstein writes, these were obviously expensive technologies that governments quickly saw needed to be both funded and controlled (through ownership or licensing), and were uniquely one-way communications. His account of how those resistance fighters under totalitarian regimes in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia turned them into two way technologies through personal courage, cultural and technical intelligence, and bungling by collectivist thinking governments, is one of the centerpieces of his argument as he brings it up to the 20th century. He also talks briefly about the easily overlooked invention of the affordable photocopy machine.
The present, of course is the Internet and social media, which fit Bernstein's model well. They were initially expensive technologies that governments first failed to understand and then tried to control as costs came down and access became ubiquitous. He concludes with some balanced consideration of which tendency--democratization or control--will win out in the Internet era. The contest is still in progress four years after his writing (which includes the first Arab Spring Uprising and the Rwanda genocide), but Bernstein provides some analysis and predictions based on economic and cultural metrics which proves usable today. The slow and fitful migration of China toward economic capitalism and democratic openness was an open question for Bernstein, and remains so today.
The multiple disciplines which I listed at the outset that feed into this history keep it fresh and fun to read. If you enjoy archeology and classic language discussions, if you like discussions about arcane technology like paper and typeface making, if you want narrative history about the Reformation (including Wycliffe and the Waldensians, not just Luther), if you enjoy modern history about invention and patent progress, it is all here. Bernstein carries his argument forward with recaps and summaries so if you glaze over on a section of less interest to you he'll catch you up at the end of the chapter and beginning of the next. And of course it is footnoted and includes a bibliography for those who want to dig deeper.
May 9, 2013
I suspect most academics and others used to exceptional historiographical practices will find the book insufficiently rigorous and tending toward unjustified generalizations. And such criticisms would be more or less fair. However, as an *introductory* account of the important role that "media" has and continues to play in human life and co-existence, it's not too bad. I can see it being quite useful in a variety of undergraduate settings.
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March 8, 2014A solid introductory history of communication and media. I was especially interested in the early chapters about the development of writing.
I'd hoped for more about linguistics, but that wasn't where the book was going, so I can't complain. The chapters on communication under the Soviets were another plus.
I'd hoped for more about linguistics, but that wasn't where the book was going, so I can't complain. The chapters on communication under the Soviets were another plus.
June 7, 2016
A broad but quite selective historical survey of communication and information technologies from alphabets to 21st century digital social media. Bernstein approaches the subject from some interesting, unusual angles in an accessible, engaging narrative.
June 27, 2013
Splendid, incisive and instructive. He superbly extracts the right events to show impact of media technologies on people and state.
February 14, 2020
(The English review is placed beneath Russian one)
Ценность книги в том, что автор выбрал одну узкую тему – зарождение и развитие средств коммуникации – с тем, чтобы показать, как это важнейшее событие изменило мир и почему всё, что мы имеем сейчас, мы обязаны тем важным историческим событиям, о которых рассказывает автор. Действительно, если бы не зародился самый первый текст (именно текст, а не иероглифы, которые есть по сути своей - картинки), то человек бы никогда не достиг бы вершин XXI века. Без умения мыслить абстрактно, он бы не только не мог создать искусство в самом широком смысле (живопись, дизайн, архитектура), но и не смог бы создать алфавит. Не было бы никакого греческого, латинского и прочих языков. С появления иероглифов, клинописи и далее, первого алфавита (точнее их разных вариаций), начинает своё повествование автор.
Книга построена так, что мы видим главное и важнейшее событие цивилизации как то первый алфавит, писцы, станок Гутенберга и так далее. И как одновременно это меняло жизнь людей. Т.е. как появление текста, к примеру, письменные приказы римских легионеров, повлияли на Рим и его противников. Автор как бы кидает камень в лесное озеро, где камень – важное вышеназванное событие, а круги на воде, это те громадные и масштабные изменения которые произошли в связи с этим. Так, умение писать и читать, могло быть одной из причин того, что Рим смог завоевать столько народов, ведь Риму было проще вести войну, имея возможность отправлять письменные приказы. Как пишет автор, эффект «числа Данбара» согласно которому человек может успешно коммуницировать, поддерживать связь только со 150 людьми, не больше. А это значит, что письменность расширила возможности коммуникации, расширила возможности контроля, сломав рамки числа 150.
Или возьмём появление печатного станка. Если раньше только церковь имела монопольное положение и на информацию и на образование, то появление печатного станка положило этому конец. Как мы теперь понимаем, не только монополию церкви на информацию (в тех случаях, это был конец монополии на Библию, т.к. теперь любой мог купить и прочитать её, т.е. не было нужды в таком посреднике и интерпретаторе как церковь), но и запустило движение в сторону усиления светской власти, власти королей и одновременно ослабления института церкви. И далее, в логике этого событие, появление самого Лютера. Мог бы появиться Лютер (а его аналоги были и до него, и их было довольно много) и успешно реализовать то, что он сделал? И вместе с автором книги мы отвечаем: нет, без Гутенберга появление и успех Лютера был бы невозможен, как невозможен был Рим с его громадной территорией, как невозможен был XX век с его трансатлантической коммуникацией и теми техническими новинками, что он принёс. Именно так построена книга и именно так она читается. В этом её ценность. Нам показывают как «слово» создало цивилизацию.
Книга рассматривает, условно говоря, десять самых важных событий. Происхождение письма, т.е. мы, отправимся вместе с автором на территорию нынешнего Ближнего Востока, попутно узнаем, что там происходило в те времена. Далее мы столкнёмся, разумеется, с Древней Грецией и Римом и как образование (т.е. умение писать и читать) послужили на благо демократии и римских завоеваний. Далее автор коротко расскажет о периоде средних веков, с его писцами и ручным переписыванием (в связи с этим вспоминается довольно интересная книга из той же серии «Ренессанс. У истоков современности»). Следующая глава логично вытекает из предыдущей, т.к. это, во-первых, Гутенберг и то, как церковь вела войну с его наследием, как возникла первая волна цензуры и костров из книг. Данному вопросу автор посвящает больше всего времени, т.е. три главы. Далее мы получим появление и развитие телеграфа и радио, т.е. это Германия 30-х и Советский Союз с его борьбой с диссидентами. Заключительной темой является, разумеется, появление Интернета и вопрос, может ли Twitter и Facebook, да и интернет в целом, изменить жить людей и даже систему государства, как это произошло с тем же печатным станком. Т.е. в данном случаи, может ли это повлиять на распространение демократии или нет?
В целом, книга очень интересна, читается легко (в отличие от той же «Библия и меч») и я думаю, понравится всем, кто увлечён историей как таковой.
The value of the book is that the author has chosen one narrow theme - the birth and development of communication - to show how this major event has changed the world and why we owe everything we have now to the important historical events the author tells us about. Indeed, if the very first text (the text, not the hieroglyphics, which are basically pictures) had not been generated, people would never have reached the peaks of the 21st century. Without the ability to think abstractly, a human being would not only be unable to create art in the broadest sense (painting, design, architecture), but would also be unable to create an alphabet. There would be no Greek, Latin or other languages. With the appearance of hieroglyphs, cuneiform writing and the first alphabet (or rather their different variations), the author begins his narrative.
The book is structured in such a way that we see the most important events of civilization as the first alphabet, scribes, Gutenberg's machine tool and so on. And how these events changed people's lives. That is, how the appearance of the text, for example, the written orders of Roman legionaries, influenced Rome and its opponents. The author as if throws a stone into a forest lake, where the stone is an important event, and the circles on the water are those large-scale changes in the world that occurred in connection with this. Thus, the ability to write and read, could be one of the reasons why Rome was able to conquer so many nations, because it was easier for Rome to wage war, having the opportunity to send written orders. As the author writes, the effect of "Dunbar number" according to which a person can successfully communicate, maintain contact with only 150 people, no more. This means that writing has expanded the possibilities of communication, expanded the possibilities of control, breaking the limits of number 150.
Or we could take the invention of a printing press. Whereas in the past only the church had a monopoly on both information and education, the advent of the printing press put an end to this. As we now understand it, not only did the church monopoly on information (in those cases, it was the end of the monopoly on the Bible, because now anyone could buy and read it, i.e. there was no need for such an intermediary and interpreter as the church), but it also launched a movement to strengthen the secular power and power of kings and at the same time weaken the institution of the church. And then, in the logic of this event, the appearance of Luther himself. Could Luther have appeared (and his analogues had been before him) and successfully implemented what he had done? And together with the author of the book we answer: no, without Gutenberg, the appearance and success of Luther would have been impossible, how impossible was Rome with its vast territory, how impossible was the 20th century with its transatlantic communication and the technical innovations that it brought. This is how the book is constructed. This is its value. We are shown how the "word" created civilization.
The book considers, conditionally speaking, the ten most important events. The origin of the letter, i.e. we will go together with the author to the territory of the present Middle East, along the way we will learn what was happening there at that time. Next, of course, we will encounter Ancient Greece and Rome and how education (i.e. writing and reading) served for the benefit of democracy and Roman conquests. Next, the author will briefly talk about the Middle Ages period, with his scribes and handwritten copy (in this regard, we recall a rather interesting book "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern"). The next chapter logically follows from the previous one, because, first of all, it is Gutenberg and the way the church waged war with his heritage, how the first wave of censorship and bonfires from books appeared. The author devotes most of his time to this question, i.e. three chapters. Further, the emergence and development of telegraph and radio, i.e. Germany in the 30s and the Soviet Union with its fight against dissidents. The final topic is, of course, the emergence of the Internet and the question of whether Twitter and Facebook, and the Internet as a whole, can change people's lives and even the state system, as it happened with the printing press. That is, in this case, can it affect the spread of democracy or not?
In general, the book is very interesting, easy to read (unlike Bible and Sword by Barbara W. Tuchman) and I think everyone who is interested in history as such will like it.
Ценность книги в том, что автор выбрал одну узкую тему – зарождение и развитие средств коммуникации – с тем, чтобы показать, как это важнейшее событие изменило мир и почему всё, что мы имеем сейчас, мы обязаны тем важным историческим событиям, о которых рассказывает автор. Действительно, если бы не зародился самый первый текст (именно текст, а не иероглифы, которые есть по сути своей - картинки), то человек бы никогда не достиг бы вершин XXI века. Без умения мыслить абстрактно, он бы не только не мог создать искусство в самом широком смысле (живопись, дизайн, архитектура), но и не смог бы создать алфавит. Не было бы никакого греческого, латинского и прочих языков. С появления иероглифов, клинописи и далее, первого алфавита (точнее их разных вариаций), начинает своё повествование автор.
Книга построена так, что мы видим главное и важнейшее событие цивилизации как то первый алфавит, писцы, станок Гутенберга и так далее. И как одновременно это меняло жизнь людей. Т.е. как появление текста, к примеру, письменные приказы римских легионеров, повлияли на Рим и его противников. Автор как бы кидает камень в лесное озеро, где камень – важное вышеназванное событие, а круги на воде, это те громадные и масштабные изменения которые произошли в связи с этим. Так, умение писать и читать, могло быть одной из причин того, что Рим смог завоевать столько народов, ведь Риму было проще вести войну, имея возможность отправлять письменные приказы. Как пишет автор, эффект «числа Данбара» согласно которому человек может успешно коммуницировать, поддерживать связь только со 150 людьми, не больше. А это значит, что письменность расширила возможности коммуникации, расширила возможности контроля, сломав рамки числа 150.
Или возьмём появление печатного станка. Если раньше только церковь имела монопольное положение и на информацию и на образование, то появление печатного станка положило этому конец. Как мы теперь понимаем, не только монополию церкви на информацию (в тех случаях, это был конец монополии на Библию, т.к. теперь любой мог купить и прочитать её, т.е. не было нужды в таком посреднике и интерпретаторе как церковь), но и запустило движение в сторону усиления светской власти, власти королей и одновременно ослабления института церкви. И далее, в логике этого событие, появление самого Лютера. Мог бы появиться Лютер (а его аналоги были и до него, и их было довольно много) и успешно реализовать то, что он сделал? И вместе с автором книги мы отвечаем: нет, без Гутенберга появление и успех Лютера был бы невозможен, как невозможен был Рим с его громадной территорией, как невозможен был XX век с его трансатлантической коммуникацией и теми техническими новинками, что он принёс. Именно так построена книга и именно так она читается. В этом её ценность. Нам показывают как «слово» создало цивилизацию.
Книга рассматривает, условно говоря, десять самых важных событий. Происхождение письма, т.е. мы, отправимся вместе с автором на территорию нынешнего Ближнего Востока, попутно узнаем, что там происходило в те времена. Далее мы столкнёмся, разумеется, с Древней Грецией и Римом и как образование (т.е. умение писать и читать) послужили на благо демократии и римских завоеваний. Далее автор коротко расскажет о периоде средних веков, с его писцами и ручным переписыванием (в связи с этим вспоминается довольно интересная книга из той же серии «Ренессанс. У истоков современности»). Следующая глава логично вытекает из предыдущей, т.к. это, во-первых, Гутенберг и то, как церковь вела войну с его наследием, как возникла первая волна цензуры и костров из книг. Данному вопросу автор посвящает больше всего времени, т.е. три главы. Далее мы получим появление и развитие телеграфа и радио, т.е. это Германия 30-х и Советский Союз с его борьбой с диссидентами. Заключительной темой является, разумеется, появление Интернета и вопрос, может ли Twitter и Facebook, да и интернет в целом, изменить жить людей и даже систему государства, как это произошло с тем же печатным станком. Т.е. в данном случаи, может ли это повлиять на распространение демократии или нет?
В целом, книга очень интересна, читается легко (в отличие от той же «Библия и меч») и я думаю, понравится всем, кто увлечён историей как таковой.
The value of the book is that the author has chosen one narrow theme - the birth and development of communication - to show how this major event has changed the world and why we owe everything we have now to the important historical events the author tells us about. Indeed, if the very first text (the text, not the hieroglyphics, which are basically pictures) had not been generated, people would never have reached the peaks of the 21st century. Without the ability to think abstractly, a human being would not only be unable to create art in the broadest sense (painting, design, architecture), but would also be unable to create an alphabet. There would be no Greek, Latin or other languages. With the appearance of hieroglyphs, cuneiform writing and the first alphabet (or rather their different variations), the author begins his narrative.
The book is structured in such a way that we see the most important events of civilization as the first alphabet, scribes, Gutenberg's machine tool and so on. And how these events changed people's lives. That is, how the appearance of the text, for example, the written orders of Roman legionaries, influenced Rome and its opponents. The author as if throws a stone into a forest lake, where the stone is an important event, and the circles on the water are those large-scale changes in the world that occurred in connection with this. Thus, the ability to write and read, could be one of the reasons why Rome was able to conquer so many nations, because it was easier for Rome to wage war, having the opportunity to send written orders. As the author writes, the effect of "Dunbar number" according to which a person can successfully communicate, maintain contact with only 150 people, no more. This means that writing has expanded the possibilities of communication, expanded the possibilities of control, breaking the limits of number 150.
Or we could take the invention of a printing press. Whereas in the past only the church had a monopoly on both information and education, the advent of the printing press put an end to this. As we now understand it, not only did the church monopoly on information (in those cases, it was the end of the monopoly on the Bible, because now anyone could buy and read it, i.e. there was no need for such an intermediary and interpreter as the church), but it also launched a movement to strengthen the secular power and power of kings and at the same time weaken the institution of the church. And then, in the logic of this event, the appearance of Luther himself. Could Luther have appeared (and his analogues had been before him) and successfully implemented what he had done? And together with the author of the book we answer: no, without Gutenberg, the appearance and success of Luther would have been impossible, how impossible was Rome with its vast territory, how impossible was the 20th century with its transatlantic communication and the technical innovations that it brought. This is how the book is constructed. This is its value. We are shown how the "word" created civilization.
The book considers, conditionally speaking, the ten most important events. The origin of the letter, i.e. we will go together with the author to the territory of the present Middle East, along the way we will learn what was happening there at that time. Next, of course, we will encounter Ancient Greece and Rome and how education (i.e. writing and reading) served for the benefit of democracy and Roman conquests. Next, the author will briefly talk about the Middle Ages period, with his scribes and handwritten copy (in this regard, we recall a rather interesting book "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern"). The next chapter logically follows from the previous one, because, first of all, it is Gutenberg and the way the church waged war with his heritage, how the first wave of censorship and bonfires from books appeared. The author devotes most of his time to this question, i.e. three chapters. Further, the emergence and development of telegraph and radio, i.e. Germany in the 30s and the Soviet Union with its fight against dissidents. The final topic is, of course, the emergence of the Internet and the question of whether Twitter and Facebook, and the Internet as a whole, can change people's lives and even the state system, as it happened with the printing press. That is, in this case, can it affect the spread of democracy or not?
In general, the book is very interesting, easy to read (unlike Bible and Sword by Barbara W. Tuchman) and I think everyone who is interested in history as such will like it.
August 5, 2024
I took hell of a long time to finish this book. It was not that I was sluggish in reading. I was at my own pace. However, the explosion of data, statistics and figures, and immeasurable nuggets of wisdom that is replete in the 450+ pages, made me re-read and re-evaluate various sections. This book is not merely on the history of media worldwide, but a guide, a primer to how you should approach media and develop your worldview towards it. The author shows that even though changeovers and profound switches from one technology to another have prominently influenced the manner in which the entire media establishment works, the media has forever and ever been the most persuasive and intoxicating tool in the hands of rulers to govern and shape public opinion. Ever since the dawn of inscribed words, media, aside from amusing and giving a channel for the mind, humanizing and notifying, serving as a municipal forum for debate has been the paramount apparatus of manufacturing, disseminating and controlling the prime narrative. Such a rich book needs to be cherished and suggested to all students and scholars of not only media studies, but of modern history and politics as well. A five on five.
February 14, 2022
The central argument of this book is that literacy and access to the means of media production leads to greater democracy.
The early parts of the book examine the development of writing systems and their impact on societies in the near and middle east. According to the author literacy and democracy went hand in hand in ancient Athens but the Roman empire was in part destroyed by the restriction of literacy to the elite and to the army. Medieval Christianity maintained a stranglehold on writing until Guttenberg and Luther came along. The freedom of the press is examined in an American context and the impact of radio in both America and the Soviet Union is given minute attention. Samizdat and the internet are given credit for their rolls in the downfall of repressive Soviet and Arabic regimes.
The internet by definition is good for democracy as it hands access to the world to the individual. All of this was written in 2013 before the rise of Donald Trump, the dark net and QAnon. The book's simplistic equation between ecomic prosperity and democratic society seems hoplessly niave.
The early parts of the book examine the development of writing systems and their impact on societies in the near and middle east. According to the author literacy and democracy went hand in hand in ancient Athens but the Roman empire was in part destroyed by the restriction of literacy to the elite and to the army. Medieval Christianity maintained a stranglehold on writing until Guttenberg and Luther came along. The freedom of the press is examined in an American context and the impact of radio in both America and the Soviet Union is given minute attention. Samizdat and the internet are given credit for their rolls in the downfall of repressive Soviet and Arabic regimes.
The internet by definition is good for democracy as it hands access to the world to the individual. All of this was written in 2013 before the rise of Donald Trump, the dark net and QAnon. The book's simplistic equation between ecomic prosperity and democratic society seems hoplessly niave.
December 24, 2018
Wow, what an incredible book. I usually don't read history books that aren't about the ancient Romans or Greeks, so I was really hoping this book would be worthwhile - and it was. I was so captivated by it! Bernstein writes well, and his ideas flow beautifully from one chapter to the next. This is a really amazing book, engulfing thousands of years of history, but tying it all up in an extremely easy-to-understand and well-written way. I absolutely loved reading this book.
Side note:
The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because there are some things that it helps to have background knowledge on (in that the book doesn't fully explain it, and it could be confusing). I was lucky enough to have learned about some of the events and concepts already, so I filled in all the missing pieces.
Apart from that, this was definitely one of my favourite history books by far. I can't recommend it enough!
Side note:
The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because there are some things that it helps to have background knowledge on (in that the book doesn't fully explain it, and it could be confusing). I was lucky enough to have learned about some of the events and concepts already, so I filled in all the missing pieces.
Apart from that, this was definitely one of my favourite history books by far. I can't recommend it enough!
December 31, 2018
I had personally never heard of William Tyndale until I read this book. (For those like me who didn't know, Tyndale was to English what Luther was to German. No Tyndale, no Shakespeare). I had also never heard of John Wycliffe and numerous other historically vital figures without whom we would still be in the dark ages.
I found both Bernstein's Splendid Exchange and Master of the Word extremely enlightening, introducing me to history everybody should know, but I for one never knew before encountering his wonderful books.
From the reviews, I gather history geeks are a bit dismissive of Bernstein's books. But for "more techno-geek than historian" readers like myself, I find him brilliant and I cannot recommend him highly enough.
I found both Bernstein's Splendid Exchange and Master of the Word extremely enlightening, introducing me to history everybody should know, but I for one never knew before encountering his wonderful books.
From the reviews, I gather history geeks are a bit dismissive of Bernstein's books. But for "more techno-geek than historian" readers like myself, I find him brilliant and I cannot recommend him highly enough.
November 14, 2023
It is very hard to keep track of the main narrative and idea when the author injects random historical stories and events with random people and random locations for no apparent reason. How do I keep track of countless random names and how can I understand what is happening since there were never any descriptions of the "setting" and who the heck are these people? Am I supposed to know the entire history of the world the be "in the know"?
Why write about persons parents, their names and their upbringing to never relate it to the story and never mention those names again. If you know something, it doesn't mean you should write it down and waste everyone's time.
The half of the book can easily be deleted, because it brings nothing to the main narrative and idea.
Why write about persons parents, their names and their upbringing to never relate it to the story and never mention those names again. If you know something, it doesn't mean you should write it down and waste everyone's time.
The half of the book can easily be deleted, because it brings nothing to the main narrative and idea.
August 9, 2021
The Wordsmiths of History
Bernstein manages to encapsulate the manner in which media has shaped our world in an easily understandable format. He begins before the scriptoria and ends in our world with the development of the Internet. And of course he ties the development of the word to the times and events that the word changed or the times and events that changed the word. His rendition of the development of the Internet is the most concise and most easily understood that I have read. If you have any interest in language and its effect upon our history, you will enjoy Mr Bernstein’s eye on the Wordsmiths of History.
Bernstein manages to encapsulate the manner in which media has shaped our world in an easily understandable format. He begins before the scriptoria and ends in our world with the development of the Internet. And of course he ties the development of the word to the times and events that the word changed or the times and events that changed the word. His rendition of the development of the Internet is the most concise and most easily understood that I have read. If you have any interest in language and its effect upon our history, you will enjoy Mr Bernstein’s eye on the Wordsmiths of History.
March 12, 2020
The title is distractingly bland, but the subtitle is more to the point. This is a masterwork that will:
-teach you of the history of the written word
-teach you the history of communication
-teach you the power of our writing’s influence
-convince you that written communication and an informed populace is good
-convince you that the world may be getting better
-convince you that religion isn’t good for a society
-convince you that social media ain’t all bad
-show you that words topple despots
Read this book.
-teach you of the history of the written word
-teach you the history of communication
-teach you the power of our writing’s influence
-convince you that written communication and an informed populace is good
-convince you that the world may be getting better
-convince you that religion isn’t good for a society
-convince you that social media ain’t all bad
-show you that words topple despots
Read this book.
February 18, 2020
Masters of the Word is an enticing but ponderous read. It at times captivated me while at other times it was a labour to read. I still managed to gain some wonderful knowledge about the history of the alphabet, our Greco/Roman/Latin alphabet that is.
September 30, 2020
A must read for those in politics
Another Masterpiece by Bernstein. Outlines what happens during periods of technology change. While he never uses the term; this is a history of fame news and WHY it happens.
Another Masterpiece by Bernstein. Outlines what happens during periods of technology change. While he never uses the term; this is a history of fame news and WHY it happens.
December 17, 2023
Excellent history of the evolution of media (languages, alphabets and media formats) throughout human history. The book covers a lot of topics, so the author has kept the content concise. However there are plenty of references for the reader who wants to read deeper. Interesting and informative.
December 19, 2023
sloppy
.........
"the author injects random historical stories and events with random people and random locations for no apparent reason"
"there is the usual amount of political commentary that is quite speculative and unneeded"
"inaccurate"
June 22, 2025
Worth your time! Like in A Splendid Exchange, Bernstein tidily covers his entire thesis in a robust form in the first chapter. Check it out from your library and read that--and if compelled, read the rest.
May 20, 2021
133 - 2021
November 1, 2022
Great read. Liked it more than A Splendid Exchange and that totally did not suck. I lack objectivity as I love subject matter. Important book.
May 1, 2023
Review to Follow.
June 3, 2023
This was better than I thought it was going to be...I will write more later.
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