The writing revolution : cuneiform to the Internet / Amalia E. Gnanadesikan.
Material type:
TextSeries: Language library: Publisher: Chichester, U.K. ; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009Description: xii, 310 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cmISBN: 1405154063 (hardcover : alk. paper); 9781405154062 (hardcover : alk. paper); 1405154071 (pbk. : alk. paper); 9781405154079 (pbk. : alk. paper)Subject(s): Alphabet -- History | Fotboll -- HistoryDDC classification: 411 LOC classification: P211 | .G58 2009Online resources: Table of contents only | Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Printed book
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IES Halmstad | Non-fiction | 411 Gna (Browse shelf) | Available |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-296) and index.
The first IT revolution -- Cuneiform: forgotten legacy of a forgotten people -- Egyptian hieroglyphs and the quest for eternity -- Chinese: a love of paperwork -- Maya glyphs: calendars of kings -- Linear B: the clerks of Agamemnon -- Japanese: three scripts are better than one -- Cherokee: Sequoyah reverse-engineers -- The Semitic alphabet: Egypt to Manchuria in 3,400 years -- The empire of Sanskrit -- King Sejong's one-man renaissance -- Greek serendipity -- The age of Latin -- The alphabet meets the machine.
In a world of rapid technological advancement, it is easy to forget that writing is the original information technology, created to transcend the limitations of human memory and to defy time and space. This book describes how this communication tool has conquered the world, making possible everything from complex bureaucracy, literature, and science, to instruction manuals and love letters.