Books by Henri-Jean Martin

This study is the story of writing from its beginnings to its recent transformations through technology. The author shows how the written word originated, how it spread and how it figured in the evolution of civilization.

The emergence of the book was an event of world historical importance, and heralded the dawning of modernity. This title presents the history of that process, combining technological history, sociology and anthropology, with the study of modes of consciousness to root the development of printing in the ideological struggles of Western Europe.