“Understanding Media” turns 50

This yearmarks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Marshall McLuhan’s best known work, Understanding Media. To mark the occasion, I’m republishing some thoughts on the man and the bookthat originally appeared here in 2011. I also had an opportunity to chat about McLuhan’s legacy with Brooke Gladstone in a segment of On the Media airing this weekend, which you can listen to here. The image above is a detail from aMADmagazine cover.

One of my favorite YouTube videos is a clip from a 1968...