By Harold A. Innis - Foreword by Andrew Calabrese - Other Alexander John Watson

It's been said that without Harold A. Innis there could have been no Marshall McLuhan. Empire and Communications is one of Innis's most important contributions to the debate about how media influence the development of consciousness and societies. In this foundational work, he traces humanity's movement from the oral tradition of preliterate cultures to the electronic media of recent times. Along the way, he presents his own influential concepts of oral communication, time and space bias, and monopolies of knowledge.

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1 Introduction Chapter 4 2 Egypt Chapter 5 3 Babylonia Chapter 6 4 The Oral Tradition and Greek Civilization Chapter 7 5 The Written Tradition and the Roman Empire Chapter 8 6 Parchment and Paper Chapter 9 7 Paper and the Printing Press