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9780415157858

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'A thorough and detailed history of the media from hieroglyphics to the Internet.' - Daily Telegraph 'With the publication of Soft Edge Levinson establishes himself as a major historian, critic and visionary in the media field.' - Systems Research and Behavioural Science 'A thoughtful analysis of the revolution of information technologies and their rise and fall in relation to social and technological environments ... It provides excellent insights and is suggested reading for those with a keen interest in media.' - Journalism and Mass Communication 'This is an excellent text for anyone working or teaching in the field of new media and society, and supplies a very different perspective within a crowded field of competitors.' - Communication Booknotes Quarterly ' a thoughtful and stimulating book'

Paul Levinson takes a thoughtful and perceptive dander through the Information Wilderness. Beautifully written, the author has the gift of illuminating the mundane and putting a different spin on developments we no longer think about as being part of a communication revolution. This is a highly readable and thought-provoking book.. -Moira Duncan Managing Information, Dec 1997 This history provides a refreshing contrast to texts that are little more than litanies of dates and/or tomes of doomsayers. It provides excellent insights and is suggested reading for those with a keen interest in media. - Educator The Soft Edge is a wonderful book, both as a historical survey of how information technologies have evolved and as a critique of how some media critics have portrayed computers and the Internet. - Technology and Society Remarkable in both scholarly sweep and rhetorical lyricism ...what first promises to be the digital Origin of the Species turns out to be a sequel to The Odyssey: media's progress is presented as an epic journey toward freedom, unseating censors along the way. - Wired Smart, spare, yet deep, and heartily recommended. - Library Journal

Paul Levinson takes a thoughtful and perceptive dander through the Information Wilderness. Beautifully written, the author has the gift of illuminating the mundane and putting a different spin on developments we no longer think about as being part of a communication revolution. This is a highly readable and thought-provoking book.. <br>-Moira Duncan Managing Information, Dec 1997 <br> This history provides a refreshing contrast to texts that are little more than litanies of dates and/or tomes of doomsayers. It provides excellent insights and is suggested reading for those with a keen interest in media. <br>- Educator <br> The Soft Edge is a wonderful book, both as a historical survey of how information technologies have evolved and as a critique of how some media critics have portrayed computers and the Internet. <br>- Technology and Society <br> Remarkable in both scholarly sweep and rhetorical lyricism ...what first promises to be the digital Origin of the Species turns out to be a sequel to The Odyssey: media's progress is presented as an epic journey toward freedom, unseating censors along the way. <br>- Wired <br> Smart, spare, yet deep, and heartily recommended. <br>- Library Journal <br>

'A thorough and detailed history of the media from hieroglyphics to the Internet.' - Daily Telegraph 'With the publication of Soft Edge Levinson establishes himself as a major historian, critic and visionary in the media field.' - Systems Research and Behavioural Science 'A thoughtful analysis of the revolution of information technologies and their rise and fall in relation to social and technological environments ... It provides excellent insights and is suggested reading for those with a keen interest in media.' - Journalism and Mass Communication 'This is an excellent text for anyone working or teaching in the field of new media and society, and supplies a very different perspective within a crowded field of competitors.' - Communication Booknotes Quarterly ' a thoughtful and stimulating book'

The soft edge of the title refers to the intangibles surrounding technology's impact on society. The second half of this overview of the development of information techonology gets mired down in elaborating on this definition, to the study's detriment. The natural history offered by Levinson, an educator and writer (New School for Social Research) takes the study of information from the dawn of written language to word processing, showing, for instance, how radio, which would presumably be replaced by television, survived by finding its niche with rock 'n' roll - something TV could never offer on the same scale. The implications that Levinson derives from the first part of his study, stressing the ways in which new media have always had a profound impact on human society, are often thought-provoking though sometimes unconvincing. For instance, Levinson ties the success of monotheism to the Israelites, who had an alphabet, as opposed to earlier monotheistic Egyptians, who had hieroglyphics and, thus, lower literacy rates. However, the assertion that the ancient Egyptians ever were monotheistic is only a theory, and is not substantial enough to build yet other theories on, which Levinson repeatedly attempts to do. Further pitfalls await the author as he attempts to attack the World Wide Web and artificial intelligence. His arguments increasingly ignore the larger impact of new information technology on contemporary society altogether, instead addressing such seemingly unrelated topics as copyright law, author compensation, and online education. Levinson's sprawling investigation and proliferating theories lessen the strength of his clever final chapter, which uses instant coffee as an ingenious metaphor for information - you can describe it, he says, and it is an efficient way to transport a product, but if you can't taste it, what good is it? Levinson should have excised the chapters that don't tie in with his central theme. As it stands, The Soft Edge is too soft, and without taste. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Paul Levinson

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