How Writing Made Us Human, 3000 BCE to Now

by Walter Stephens

A sweeping history of how writing has preserved cultural practices, traditions, and knowledge throughout human history. In How Writing Made Us Human, 3000 BCE to Now , Walter Stephens condenses the massive history of the written word into an accessible, engaging narrative. The history of writing is not merely a record of technical innovations―from hieroglyphics to computers―but something far a chronicle of emotional engagement with written culture whose long arc intimates why the humanities are crucial to society. For five millennia, myths and legends provided fascinating explanations for the origins and uses of writing. These stories overflowed with enthusiasm about fabled personalities (both human and divine) and their adventures with capturing speech and preserving memory. Stories recounted how and why an ancient Sumerian king, a contemporary of Gilgamesh, invented the cuneiform writing system―or alternatively, how the earliest Mesopotamians learned everything from a hybrid man-fish. For centuries, Jews and Christians debated whether Moses or God first wrote the Ten Commandments. Throughout history, some myths of writing were literary fictions. Plato's tale of Atlantis supposedly emerged from a vast Egyptian archive of world history. Dante's vision of God as one infinite book inspired Borges's fantasy of the cosmos as a limitless library, while the nineteenth century bequeathed Mary Shelley's apocalyptic tale of a world left with innumerable books but only one surviving reader. Stephens presents a comprehensive history of the written word and demonstrates how writing has preserved and shaped human life since the Bronze Age. These stories, their creators, and their preservation have inspired wonder and an endless appetite for historical revelation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History

576 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2023

Reviews

[Tori · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of this book was quite enjoyable. It encapsulates why I picked the book in the first place.

This is a well-researched book and the writer’s points are sound.

HOWEVER, with the given title, one would presume that this is a book that spans writing systems and what influenced them, and then examines the conceptions that were born out of them, from around the world. The book is certainly thick enough to suggest it is a global examination of a shared human skill that we have developed and honed and continue to develop and hone.

Instead, after approximately 1/3 of the way in, the book reveals that the “Us” in the title is really only (non)Christian Europeans.

I did not finish this book because I did not actually find the through-line from Judaism to Medieval Europe to “Us” today interesting. I was expecting the world and instead got the same old story.

[Paul McAllister · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read, while the title may leave some readers feeling like they were mislead, the author does a wonderful job of summarizing the Western/Judeo-Christian evolution of the written word, and humbly acknowledges the blind spots in his coverage.

Not only is the subject matter thorough and extensively researched, but it is also delivered in an engaging and entertaining manner, with fascinating anecdotes peppered throughout to keep the reader engaged.

Complete with beautiful illustrations, this book, if read with a rational understanding of the vastness of the written word and the impossibility of covering the complete human evolution of the subject matter, is a page turner till the end.

One of my top reads of 2024.

[rachel]

really interesting and surprisingly entertaining but i had it for like 2 months past library due date and don’t know when i’ll get back to it 😔 learned a lot about mesopotamian fish gods lol they slayed

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject, but clunky writing

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected. Was looking for an evolutionary approach . . . this isn't it.