Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger

by Philip Marchand, Neil Postman (Foreword by)

A biography of the man who saw the digital revolution coming decades before anyone else. with a new foreword by Neil Postman When communications thinker Marshall McLuhan gave us the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village," he was ahead of his time. Now, in the age of the digital revolution McLuhan and his work cannot be ignored by any student of culture and technology. Interest in McLuhan has increased dramatically since this biography was first published in 1989 to stunning reviews. The author has extensively revised this new edition to include additional information provided by McLuhan's family and friends, and to present an even clearer and more absorbing personal picture of McLuhan. The book explains the relevance to today's society of a man who reached the height of his fame in the 1960s. The foreword by Neil Postman is original to this edition.* Not for sale in Canada

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Politics

322 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Instead of scurrying into a corner and wailing about what media are doing to us, one should charge straight ahead and kick them in the electrodes. They respond beautifully to such resolute treatment and soon become servants rather than masters."

Plenty of insights throughout this capably-written biography of Marshall McLuhan. And the book really develops some genuine heft as... [see the rest on my book review site.]

[Marko]

I have the german edition.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to McLuhan's thought. The author seems just a bit removed from his subject, which I suppose is partly good with biography, though he does admit in the introduction that he doesn't agree himself with all of McLuhan's thoughts (though he isn't specific). I was a little confused when he would gloss over one of McLuhan's later work in a single paragraph (there's a particular book which escapes me now that he handled like this). He first says that it was quite an important book in spite of the limited reception it got. But then he moves on. Rather than elaborating on a book that might have been personally important in McLuhan's intellectual trajectory, he limits his comments to the same amount of attention the general media gave it while saying that it received less attention than it should have. What am I supposed to take from this, but that Marchand is trying to create an accessible portrait of McLuhan without boring folks with details. Along this line, at one point he mentions the ridiculous amount of material McLuhan wrote and journaled, and yet the amount of direct quotations from McLuhan are limited. I'm surprised their are not more excerpts from his diaries, for example. By far the best parts are detailed descriptions of McLuhan's actual conversations with people, which are abundant but still somehow lacking given his prolific (if somewhat disorderly) output.

My intuition tells me there is room for another biography of this truly eccentric and under appreciated genius.

[Alec Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

First-rate biography reading for work (article around centennial of birth), getting at complicated ideas of the man who anticipated the major aspects of the electronic age, but also serving him up as a man, warts and all. Before this all I knew about him was his fun cameo in Annie Hall, where he tells a know-it-all spouting off about his theories in a movie line, "You know nothing of my work." (He coined the term the Global Village, and the cryptic, much-quoted, but seldom understood, the Medium is the Message ...

[Cypress Butane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just started reading this for an article I'm writing on McLuhan for Cyberpunks.com. I've been doing a lot of research into McLuhan, watching his lectures on youtube, and reading lightly through some of his books. I understand that he was more a thinker than a writer, more an idea person than a formulaic scientist. I am hoping this book gives me a fuller picture of the whole man that allows me to say something about him and his contribution to our world today.

[Ryan Anthenat · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read a lot of biographies. this one stands out.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read on McLuhan. His message is still on point today even with our technological and sociological advances. Must read and process slowly.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still relevant today...maybe more so today than in the 1960s. ...A good way to think how technology shapes our lives.