The Gutenberg Galaxy

Very thoughtful and informative book. Most importantly, true, prophetic really. I know it is considered academically seminal and yet outdated, but this book may be the first to have predicted the massive changes in our forms of communication and to our very minds due to technological developments.

the original book that describe just how the "fact of the presence of a particular "medium" in this case printing changes knowledge and how we perceive knowledge. Very readable by a real accredited expert. It lead Understanding media. Read this first then read Understanding media which stops kind of at the beginning of the computer age but PREDICTS exactly what is happening now with the "cell phone"... lead to the term "medium is the massage" notice mAssage, in that it massages you, but the spelling was changed. Get this with Understandng Media are read both.

Great insight into how media (technology) shapes us, just as it has shaped humanity in the past. Traces some of the impacts of previous media on culture and on the mind itself. Prophetic in its anticipation of the effects of new media.

To understand the present you have know history. The Gutenberg Galaxy describes what happened to us as humans and to our social organization when writing and the printed word replaced oral tradition. This is the best background I have found to understanding what is happening now when electronic media gradually take over more and more from the printed word

THE GUTENBERG GALAXY is a kind of prequel to UNDERSTANDING MEDIA, but it need not be read first. In MEDIA, author Marshall McLuhan writes about the impact of electronic media (specifically, "an economy based on television") and how it came to re-arrange human affairs ca. 1960 -- in GUTENBERG he goes back to the post-Renaissance and writes about how the older "oral aural tactile" modes of perception were replaced by literacy of the printed word. Think, for example of the famous Hans Holbein portrait of Henry VIII in all his "tactile" (and colorful) finery. Then fast-forward to a Puritan-era painting of a woman reading the Bible from her straight-backed chair, no color, no tactility, all her reading printed letters on an unvarnished page. Some people will find GALAXY a little easier to read than MEDIA: to use McLuhan's term, it is more "lineal" (linear) but there's no doubt it's more academic, too. My advice is to read UNDERSTANDING MEDIA first and then head to THE GUTENBERG GALAXY if you're still interested.

Although not an easy reading due to its peculiar topic organization, it is still worth the effort and by the way, I do not think it to be beyond the normal person's intelligence. It's also fascinating how some topics and ideas that have become commonplace afterwards can already be found in this book.

The Gutenberg Galaxy is a great book. This book is the vision of a man who realized that information systems will establish absolute control over society.

I liked the quality and durability of the book.

Es handelt sich um ein gilbes und brüchiges Taschenbuch mit Raucherflair, das ich eklig finde und nicht in die Hand nehmen mag.

What can be said about this book without going into a full critical review? It's a an important read, that can only become more so as time passes and generations of people become further removed from the great media shift of the 20th century. McLuhan writes with such clear vision about his own era of electronic media, foreshadowing the coming digital age. In TGG, his focus in on the print word, as he collects examples of how literacy has shaped man's psyche. The examples are great, enlightening, and I think essential for understanding the western world's journey into the digital and internet ages, and how print had shaped man for centuries. The electronic words has changed us, how we interact with the world, and this books gives a lot of clues as to where that change touches us fundamentally. For what it's worth, I found TGG a bit more difficult to read than some of his other works. The topic is dense, and borderline metaphysical & psychological in nature. It's certainly worth a slow, careful examination. For anyone interested in the self, communication and our environment, McLuhan gives a valuable perspective from a time when great changes were just forming.

Marshall McLuhan was a visionary thinker. While his books are sometimes abstract and academic, they all reveal his probing into how media, whether spoken words or written text, or electronic audio/visual, can transform not only what we know but who we become. As he so famously wrote: the medium is the message! It's the kind of book that you can pick up anytime and start anywhere. I particularly love that he begins with Shakespeare's play King Lear, which represents the struggles of society transitioning from the oral, pre-print culture of old, to the print culture of renaissance. Society, he suggests, has gone from tribal to literate only to be retribalised by electronic media. He coined the phrase "The world is a global village", forseeing the future internet age. What a giant of a thinker. Building awareness of how media transforms people, society and culture is something McLuhan was passionate about. It was his life's mission.

The Gutenberg Galaxy is still as relevant today as when it was first published. It is really a foundation document for everyone engaged in communications of any kind.

Everything is perfect about this book. Exactly what I was looking for, so there is not much more words to say:)