Part technological history of the emergent new media in the late 19th century, part theoretical discussion of the responses to these media--including texts by Rilke, Kafka, and Heidegger, as well as elaborations by Edison, Bell, Turing, and other innovators--this book analyzes this momentous shift using insights from Foucault, Lacan, and McLuhan.

Friedrich A. Kittler is a professor at the Institute for Aesthetics and Cultural Studies at Humboldt University, Berlin.