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03663aam a2200385 i 4500 001 1A2AA034078011EFB67CD9492AECA4DB 003 SILO 005 20240501010023 008 230304t20232023mduaf b 001 0 eng d 020 $a 1421446642 020 $a 9781421446646 035 $a (OCoLC)1371015214 040 $a YDX $b eng $e rda $c YDX $d TOH $d JHE $d OCLCO $d MNN $d YDX $d MNN $d AUM $d SILO 050 4 $a P211 $b .S683 2023 082 04 $a 302.2/244 $2 23/eng/20231102 100 1 $a Stephens, Walter, $d 1949- $e author. 245 10 $a How writing made us human, 3000 BCE to now / $c Walter Stephens. 264 1 $a Baltimore : $b Johns Hopkins University Press, $c 2023. 300 $a xix, 532 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : $b illustrations (some color) ; $c 24 cm. 490 1 $a Information cultures 504 $a Includes bibliographical references and index. 505 0 $a Preface: Homo scribens: Humanity and writing -- Introduction: The mystique of writing -- Complement: Writing as technology, from myth to history -- Part I: Pagan antiquity -- An age of wonder and discovery, 2500-600 BCE -- An age of philosophy, 600 BCE-400 CE -- Collections, histories, and forgeries, 300 BCE-400 CE -- Part II: Holy writ -- Writing and scripture, 600 BCE-650 CE -- The Jewish scriptures -- The Christian scriptures -- Cultural clashes and the defense of uniqueness -- Part III: Writing in the Middle Ages -- An age of paradoxical optimism, 650-1350 -- Pessimism in the age of rediscovery, 1350-1500 -- Part IV: Toward modernity -- Alternating currents, 1450-1550 -- A second age of scripture, 1500-1600 -- The age of grand collections, 1600-1800 -- Skepticism and imagination, 1600-1800 -- The age of decipherment, 1800-1950 -- The age of media, 1950-2020. 520 $a "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 richer: 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." -- $c Provided by publisher. 650 0 $a Writing $x History. 650 0 $a Language and languages $x Philosophy. 650 6 $a EÌcriture $x Histoire. 650 6 $a Langage et langues $x Philosophie. 650 7 $a Language and languages $x Philosophy $2 fast 650 7 $a Writing $2 fast 655 7 $a History $2 fast 830 0 $a Information cultures 941 $a 1 952 $l UNUX074 $d 20240501010121.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=1A2AA034078011EFB67CD9492AECA4DB 994 $a Z0 $b NIUInitiate Another SILO Locator Search