Empire and Communications

By Harold A. Innis and Harold A. Innis; Mary Q. Innis [rev.]; Marshall McLuhan [foreword]

Book Overview

It's been said that without Harold A. Innis there could have been no Marshall McLuhan. Empire and Communications is one of Innis's most important contributions to the debate about how media influence the development of consciousness and societies. In this seminal text, he traces humanity's movement from the oral tradition of preliterate cultures to the electronic media of recent times. Along the way, he presents his own influential concepts of oral communication, time and space bias, and monopolies of knowledge.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550026623
• ISBN13: 9781550026627
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Dundurn Group
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

provides an excellent historical basis...

This book provides a wonderful examination of how emerging communication technologies impact the society that spawned them. Each major media advance (papyrus, parchment, paper, the printing press) causes major shifts in the social paradigms of the societies that adopt its use... definately worth the read. This edition has an afterword by Dr. David Godfrey regarding the impact of the electronic form.