Communication in History: Technology, Culture, and Society

by David Crowley, Paul Heyer

Communication in History's outstanding selection of readings from classic and contemporary sources gives an extensive overview of the most important ideas in the field. Encompassing topics as wide-ranging as the role of printing in the rise of the modern state and the role of the Internet in the Information Age, this anthology reveals how media have been influential both in maintaining social order and as powerful agents of change. Revised with new readings for the Fourth Edition, Communication in History continues to be, as one reviewer wrote, "the only book in the sea of History of Mass Communication books that introduces the reader to a more expansive, intellectually enlivening study of the relationship between human history and communication history." For anyone interested in media history, history of communication, the relationship of the media and society.

Genres: History, Technology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Textbooks, Communication, Cultural

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Ben Peters · Rating 2 out of 5]

No one--at least no one in their right mind--reviews textbooks. I despise them as a rule. Yet, Communication in History has one redeeming grace: it is not a true textbook. Instead it compiles short pieces from classic works of scholarship fit for most broad-minded approaches to communication and media learning and teaching.

On the other hand, even after six editions, it's far from perfect: it samples lots of great people without selecting, in my mind, the optimal excerpts. I can't blame them. No excerpt exceeds 10 pages, most half that. Still, whatever my complaints, I can't shake the fact that, in a field with a number of relevant readers, this is the only undergraduate-ready "textbook" of its kind that I know of.

The volume includes excerpts from these authors, among many others: (Early civilization) Harold Innis; (Western literacy) Jack Goody and Ian Watt, Eric Havelock, Walter Ong, Umberto Eco; (print revolution) Lewis Mumford, Elizabeth Eisenstein, Walter Ong, John B. Thompson, Robert Darnton; (Electricity) James Carey, Michael Schudson, Claude S. Fischer, Carolyn Marvin, Rosalynd Williams; (Image Technologies and Mass Society) Susan Sontag, Daniel Czitrom; (Radio) Susan Douglas, Marshall McLuhan; (TV) Edmund Carpenter, Lynn Spigel, Pat Aufderheide; (New Media) Neil Postman, James Beniger, Mark Poster.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of essays. It's worth reading.

[Can]

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[İrem · Rating 1 out of 5]

Çok ağır geldi bana. Tam bir ansiklopedi

[Christopher Good · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven out of ten.

(Read for Dr Herman's class on Media History)

An approachable and relatively comprehensive overview of media through time. Many of the selections are interesting as historical presentations but seem a little low in context. My favourite excerpts, often the ones with more social commentary, included the folowing:
Ong, "Writing Restructures Consciousness" (7)
Burke and Ornstein, "Communication and Faith in the Middle Ages" (8)
Mumford, "Invention of Printing" (10)
Williams, "Dream Worlds of Consumption" (16)
Peters, "The Public Voice of Radio" (23)
Carpenter, "The New Languages" (30)
Spigel, "Making Room for TV" (31)
Butsch, "Boob Tubes, Fans, and Addicts" (33); and Standage, "Social Media Retweets History" (38).
Several times I would have preferred the editors to preserve more of the surrounding contexts of the excerpts; however, many of them include bibliographical notes, and this collection could be well used as a springboard for further research.

This isn't a book with mass appeal, but it is relatively well put together and I learned enough from it that I'd recommend it to other students of media and communications, especially those with a particular interest in medium theory.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a history of the idea of communication and its evolution over time, this collection has no equal to my knowledge. The selections are comprehensive, thought-provoking, and relevant even in today's world. One deficiency of the collection is that in the middle section the theoretical aspects of these various topics gets lost for a much more concentrated look at the historical ramifications of communication technologies. Obviously the title of the volume connects to the precedence of history within its pages, but it seems to me that there could have been some more theoretical contributions regarding radio and television that would have rounded out the through-line of theory and critique that infuses much of the rest of the book. Still a very enjoyable read, and packaged in a beautiful edition that was a pleasure to hold and use.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. Some readings are better than others. But most of the essential names are here for the field of media ecology. I use it to teach in my course on media history.

There are a few readings from past editions of this book that I miss here. But I think this is a great overview of the history and philosophy of media.

[MM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection of essays -- very useful in my media history class.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good academic text about the history of communications