Awards

• Short-listed for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2012
• Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Awards 2012
• Winner of PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 2012

Overview

From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.    Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live. A New York Times Notable Book A Los Angeles Times and Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of the Year Winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 

Full Product Details

9781400096237

Table of Contents

Reviews

Magnificent...this elegant, insightful study reminds us that we have always been adrift in an incomprehensible universe. - Los Angeles Times, Best Books of 2011 <br> Grand, lucid and awe-inspiring...information is about a lot more than what human beings have to say to each other. It's the very stuff of reality, and never have its mysteries been offered up with more elegance or aplomb. - Salon, Best of 2011 <br> With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another. - Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011 <br> Ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical. - New York Times <br> <br> Gleick does what only the best science writers can do: take a subject of which most of us are only peripherally aware and put it at the center of the universe. - Time <br> The Information isn't just a natural history of a powerful idea; it embodies and transmits that idea, it is a vector for its memes . . . and it is a toolkit for disassembling the world. It is a book that vibrates with excitement. --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing <br> No author is better equipped for such a wide-ranging tour than Mr. Gleick. Some writers excel at crafting a historical narrative, others at elucidating esoteric theories, still others at humanizing scientists. Mr. Gleick is a master of all these skills. -- The Wall Street Journal <br> Extraordinary in its sweep . . . Gleick's story is beautifully told, extensively sourced, and continually surprising. -- The Boston Globe <br> Audacious. . . . Like the best college courses: challenging but rewarding. -- USA Today <br> Challenging and important. . . . This intellectual history is intoxicating--thanks to Gleick's clear mind, magpie-styled research and explanatory verve. -- The Plain Dealer <br> <br> Gleick's skill as an explicator of counterintuitive concepts makes the chapters on logic . . . brim withs

So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it... The Information is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand. - New York Times <br> [A] tour de force...This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness...Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year. - Booklist, starred review <br> With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick leads us on a journey from one form of communication information to another...Gleick's exceptional history of culture concludes that information is indeed the blood, the fuel, and the vital

With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another. - Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011 <br> So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it... The Information is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand. - New York Times <br> [A] tour de force...This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness...Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year. - Booklist, starred review <br> With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details andn

With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another. - Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011 <br> So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it... The Information is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand. - New York Times <br> [A] tour de force...This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness...Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year. - Booklist, starred review <br> With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details andf

With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another. - Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011 <br> So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it... The Information is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand. - New York Times <br> [A] tour de force...This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness...Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year. - Booklist, starred review <br> With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details andt

Author Information

JAMES GLEICK is our leading chronicler of science and technology, and the author of Chaos and Genius, both nominated for the National Book Award, and Isaac Newton, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. His books have been translated into thirty languages. www.around.com

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