The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind

By David Diringer and Ellis Minns

Book Overview

The Alphabet: A Key To The History Of Mankind is a comprehensive exploration of the history and evolution of the alphabet. Written by David Diringer, a renowned scholar of the history of writing, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 8121507480
• ISBN13: 9788121507486
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: South Asia Books
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.3" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A classic

I first read this book many years ago, and did not really understand its significance. Recently I heard Professor Daniel Sperber speak about the book. He explains that prior to the invention of the alphabet, writing in pictograms meant learning a very large amount of individual symbols. Thus it was confined to the priestly elite , who controlled the religious and legal knowledge in their societies. The development of the Alphabet , a phonetic system wherein each letter signified a certain sound, and words could be formed through the combination of sounds meant that the process of reading is democratized. Most people can learn the thirty or so letters of the 'alphabet' and thus learn to read. The Alphabet meant a vast spreading of human knowledge, and a democratization of the process of learning. Diringer's pioneering study provides a guide to the systems of writing preceding the creation of the alphabet, and then traces the development of the Alphabet historically. This is a classic work in its field.