The Power of the Written Word
Author: Alfred Burns
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Published: 1989
Total Pages: 400
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines how developments in the technology of writing and literacy stimulated changes in Western civilization from its beginnings to the present. The study suggests that a few rather short periods between long static intervals generated significant cultural and cognitive innovations which still dominate «modern» civilization. Concentrating on these milestone eras - the first urban civilization in the Near East, the Greek and Roman periods, and the Renaissance - the author finds a consistent association of advances in the technique of writing and literacy with intense intellectual creativity.