Reviewed by Dieter Aichele, Fachhochschule Worms

A better pencil illustrates the significance of today’s digital reading and writing tools as part of five thousand years of literacy. Dennis Baron, professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, starts with oral history and early writing in ancient Europe. He shows how the written record provoked fears and changed oral tradition forever. At the time philosophers and scholars feared that writing would corrupt the value of the spoken word, despite its being initially used mainly for administrative purposes. Ironically we only know of these fears today because they were written down.

Writing and literacy were refined and improved successively by such developments as the pencil, printing press, telegraph, telephone, typewriter, electronic calculator, word processor, and the internet. B considers all of these just a kind of technology that he views in light of the mixed reception of all technological inventions and new ideas throughout history, which have been greeted with high expectations and uncertainty, prejudice, and even fear.

At the same time, human beings have learned to adopt and either adapt or adapt to new technology as needed. Not all inventions last (e.g. typewriters), while others are used in parallel with new tools (e.g. pencils and even handwriting). Thus, for B today’s digital text culture of word processing, search engines, internet bookshops, diaries, blogs, social networking, and the like is just another evolutionary step in the history of literacy.

For B, the digital revolution is noteworthy in  its faster development than earlier technologies and in making writing easily accessible to more readers and writers. The internet offers a platform for writers and easy access for readers regardless of space and time. It has also greatly affected views of what is public and private and of freedom of information. Ever more public information is transported into the lives of private individuals. At the same time internet companies try to gather information about people’s private lives to use in marketing and product development. As in the past, this new development is accompanied by enthusiasm and scepticism. Only the future will show what will last and what will not.

The book includes a number of illustrations showing technological milestones in writing. An index of keywords is given at the end of the book.