Digital McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan, whose insights about the impact of media have been compared in importance to the work of Darwin, Einstein, and Freud, died at the doorstep of the digital age in 1980. Paul Levinson - author of "The Soft Edge" - delves into the lessons McLuhan holds for the new millennium. This text highlights and explains the prophetic nature of McLuhan's theories. Levinson shows us why and how the "Wired" generation is now turning to McLuhan's work to better understand a global village in a digital age. We see how the Internet, in which every computer is a centre for producing as well as obtaining information, is the true embodiment of McLuhan's vision of decentralization. Levinson explores the consequences of this revolution on everything from publishing to politics, where the "gatekeepers" of old are giving way to new modes of doing business. The text explores the economic, psychological, social, and cultural consequences of the digital revolution - buttressed by examples from headlines and motion pictures and web sites, informed by personal correspondence from McLuhan, and supported by a grasp of media theory and philosophy that spans the centuries.

'An excellent exposition of McLuhan's key ideas and their relevance to understanding new media.' - New Statesman'Digital McLuhan is as much Levinson as McLuhan at the end of the day ... this is an extremely useful and thought provoking book. It could not be further from the gold-rush atmosphere in which the Net is most often discussed, and it's all the better for that.' - Irish Times'A non-systematic look at McLuhan's very non-systematic textual legacy. Levinson shows that despite the info-glut, the medium remains the message - even, and perhaps especially, when the medium has changed.' - Publisher's Weekly'Levinson continues the illuminating investigation into the evolution of information technologies and their effects on society that he began in The Soft Edge by offering a clarifying interpretation of the works of the guru of media studies, Marshall McLuhan.' - Booklist'Levinson brings together a rich mix of the most influential and well-known thinkers, inventors, scholars, and doers of Western intellectual tradition, and he does so in such a way that they build a coherent platform on which the discussion of McLuhan then rests.' - Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Winter 2000'The book is thought provoking [and] comprehensive.' - Intermedia'Paul Levinson explains the relevance of McLuhan's work for an understanding of new media. This guide to the information millenium is a deliberate wake up call to those unaware of the profound power of the internet to reshape our lives and society.' - New Sabah Times'An amazingly well-researched, well-written, and above all else, well-educated piece of work.' - Communication Booknotes Quarterly'Now nearly 20 years after his death, his ideas have come to vivid life in Levinson neatly explicates and makes productive use of McLuhan's theories.' - Booklist'The often prophetic social and scientific insights of Marshall McLuhan are laid bare in this biography of the man who coined the phrase "the medium is the message."' - Forecast'Levinson explains why people have become intrigued with McLuhan beyond the 1970s, and why his concepts on the threshold of the digital age hold importance for modern times ... Essential for any thorough study of McLuhan's ideas in today's changing world.' - Midwest Book Review, 'Paul Levinson explains the relevance of McLuhan's work for an understanding of new media. This guide to the information millenium is a deliberate wake up call to those unaware of the profound power of the internet to reshape our lives and society.' - New Sabah Times'An amazingly well-researched, well-written, and above all else, well-educated piece of work.' - Communication Booknotes Quarterly

Paul Levinson