Search Results: Understanding Media by Herbert Marshall McLuhan

New York: Vanguard Press, [1951]. First Edition of McLuhan’s penetrating study in the field of popular culture and the persuasive influence of communication media independent of content. McLuhan’s aphorism “the medium is the message” is later elaborated in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). “Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind. To get inside in order to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now. And to generate heat not light is the intention. To keep everybody in the helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the effect of many ads and much entertainment alike.” (Preface). 4to. pp. vii, [1], 157. text in double columns. profusely illus. cloth. dw. (dw. rubbed & with few chips & tears in upper edge, the book itself in very good condition). dola2233

New York: Vanguard Press, Inc., [1951]. First Edition of McLuhan's penetrating study in the field of popular culture and the persuasive influence of communication media independent of content. McLuhan's aphorism "the medium is the message" is later elaborated in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). "Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind. To get inside in order to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now. And to generate heat not light is the intention. To keep everybody in the helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the effect of many ads and much entertainment alike." (Preface). 4to. pp. vii, [1], 157. text in double columns. profusely illus. cloth. dw. (some shelf-wear, dw. defective). Signed Presentation Copy. dola2519

1964. New York, McGraw-hill, (1964). Lex 8vo. Original white cloth with black title-label on which white and gilt lettering. Very minor bumping to captials, but an unusually fresh binding. Original illustrated dust-jacket in very fine condition, not price-clipped. A few small, marginal tears, but overall excellent. Internally near mint. VII, (1), 359, (1) pp. First edition, first printing, of this pioneering study in media theory, which completely revolutionized our understanding of the process of communication and the development of the mind of mankind, from the invention of movable type through to the electronic age; this work actually predicts the world wide web and today's information-dependent world, , making it "the most important book ever written on communication". It is in this groundbreaking work that McLuhan first coins the phrases "global village" and "the medium is the message", completely rethinking our society. Due to this marvel of a book, written twenty years before the PC… Read More