A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet

by Marshall T. Poe

A History of Communications advances a new theory of media that explains the origins and impact of different forms of communication – speech, writing, print, electronic devices, and the Internet – on human history in the long term. New media are “pulled” into widespread use by broad historical trends and these media, once in widespread use, “push” social institutions and beliefs in predictable directions. This view allows us to see for the first time what is truly new about the Internet, what is not, and where it is taking us.

Genres: History, Technology, Nonfiction, Communication

352 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

About the author

Marshall Tillbrook Poe (born December 29, 1961) is an American historian, writer, editor and founder of the New Books Network, an online collection of podcast interviews with a wide range of non-fiction authors. He has taught Russian, European, Eurasian and World history at various universities including Harvard, Columbia, University of Iowa, and, currently, the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has also taught courses on new media and online collaboration.

Poe is the author or editor of a number of books on early modern Russia. He has also published A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, a book that examines how various communications media shape social practices and values.

In 2005, Poe founded the now-defunct MemoryArchive, a universal wiki-type archive of contemporary memoirs. It encouraged people to contribute written accounts of their personal memories that would be part of a searchable, online database. There he contributed numerous personal accounts of his own, from playing basketball with Barack Obama, to stumbling onto a crime scene of Dennis Rader's, the BTK serial killer.

In 2006, Poe wrote an influential commentary on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, while serving as a writer, researcher and editor at The Atlantic magazine.

Reviews

[Adam Fishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been inching toward this conclusion for a while, and the (at time of writing) utterly mediocre 3.44 star average this book has provides the final, decisive push: I have to give up the notion that the Goodreads star rating bears any relationship to the quality of a given book. This book is fantastic -- it's written with verve, and it adeptly synthesizes concrete historical detail with a unified theoretical vision. So many of the history of technology books I've read simply heap one little fact on top of another, without any clear overarching idea that would lend coherence to the heap of detail. This book is different -- refreshingly so. The theory Poe provides is original (at least unfamiliar to me), richly developed, and defended with rigorous empirical evidence. I honestly don't know what more you people could want from a book of this kind.

[Paula Nunes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Studies the main media in a clear and thorough way. Lots of bibliography to go deeper in each aspect developed in the book. No need to be a specialist to read it.

[Professor Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. I learned much more than I expected. Most histories seem to take on a technological determinism approach while this history provides excellent arguments for social determinism.

[Drew]

excellent book on human communication and frameworks