Masters of the Word by William J Bernstein
In his new book, William J. Bernstein, the celebrated author of A Splendid Exchange, chronicles the history of media, starting with the origin of writing thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. The revolutionary tool gave rise to the world's ancient empires. And when Phoenician traders took their alphabet to Greece, literacy's first boom led to the birth of drama and democracy. But it's not just new communication technologies that have changed the world--it's access to them. Vernacular bibles gave rise to religious dissent, but it was only when the combination of cheaper paper and Gutenberg's printing press drove down the cost of books by 97 percent that the fuse of Reformation was lit. The Industrial Revolution allowed information to move faster and farther than ever before, though it concentrated power in the hands of those who ran radio and TV stations, large newspapers, and then, totalitarian governments. With the twenty-first century boom of the mobile Internet, control of media has again spread, and the world is both more connected and freer than ever before. An utterly captivating, enlightening book, Masters of the Word will change the way you look at technology, human history, and power.
William J. Bernstein is the author of The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk (2000), The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio (2002), The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created (2004), A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (2008), and The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between (2009). His latest book, Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History, a narrative treatment of the relationship among communications technology, culture, and politics, was published in April, 2013 by Grove/Atlantic Press. He is also the author of the Investing for Adults booklet series. The frst two, The Ages of the Investor: A Critical Look at Life-cycle Investing, and Skating Where the Puck Was: The Correlation Game in a Flat World, were both published in 2012.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780802121387 |
| ISBN 10 | 0802121381 |
| Title | Masters of the Word |
| Author | William J Bernstein |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press |
| Year published | 2013-04-30 |
| Number of pages | 448 |
| Prizes | Commended for Oregon Book Awards (Nonfiction) 2014 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |