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Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years Paperback – Illustrated, September 16, 2014

by Tom Standage (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 263 ratings
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From the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses, the story of social media from ancient Rome to the Arab Spring and beyond.

Social media is anything but a new phenomenon. From the papyrus letters that Cicero and other Roman statesmen used to exchange news, to the hand-printed tracts of the Reformation and the pamphlets that spread propaganda during the American and French revolutions, the ways people shared information with their peers in the past are echoed in the present.

Standage reminds us how historical social networks have much in common with modern social media. The Catholic Church's dilemmas in responding to Martin Luther's attacks are similar to those of today's large institutions in responding to criticism on the Internet, for example, and seventeenth-century complaints about the distractions of coffeehouses mirror modern concerns about social media. Invoking figures from Thomas Paine to Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet, Standage explores themes that have long been debated, from the tension between freedom of expression and censorship to social media's role in spurring innovation and fomenting revolution. Writing on the Wall draws on history to cast provocative new light on today's social media and encourages debate and discussion about how we'll communicate in the future.

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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury USA
  4. Publication date
    September 16, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    6.03 x 0.79 x 8.15 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1620402858
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1620402856
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Standage captures quite beautifully the essence of the human need to connect and interact, both its banality and world-altering power.” ―Publishers Weekly

“A thoroughly fascinating look at the evolution of social media.” ―Booklist, starred review

“Provocative . . . a wealth of information.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“Standage has just this one big point to make, but he makes it elegantly and instructively . . . what we tend to regard as the radiant novelty of the digital age may really be a rebirth.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“Tom Standage once again displays his ingenious gift for connecting our historical past to the debates and technologies of the present day.” ―Steven Johnson, author of Future Perfect and Where Good Ideas Come From

About the Author

Tom Standage is deputy editor of the Economist and the author of six previous history books, including Writing on the Wall, the New York Times bestsellers A History of the World in 6 Glasses and An Edible History of Humanity, and The Victorian Internet, a history of the telegraph. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Wired, and other publications. Standage holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University. He lives in London. @TomStandage

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; Reprint edition (September 16, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1620402858
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1620402856
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.03 x 0.79 x 8.15 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 263 ratings

About the author

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Tom Standage

Tom Standage

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Tom Standage is deputy editor of The Economist, overseeing its strategy and output on digital platforms, including the web, apps, audio, video and social media. He joined The Economist in 1998 and previously served as Digital Editor, Business Affairs Editor, Business Editor, Technology Editor and Science Correspondent. He is a regular radio commentator and keynote speaker on technology trends, and takes a particular interest in the social and cultural impact of technology. Tom is also the author of six history books, including “Writing on the Wall: Social Media—The First 2,000 Years”; the New York Times bestsellers “A History of the World in Six Glasses” (2005) and “An Edible History of Humanity” (2009); and “The Victorian Internet” (1998), a history of the telegraph. His writing has appeared in other publications including the New York Times, the Guardian and Wired. He holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University, and is the least musical member of a musical family. He is married and lives in London with his wife and children.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
263 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

BillDD
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening perspective. Fun read.
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2014
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I bought this book on the recommendation of Paul Krugman in one of his blog posts. It's very enlightening and great fun to read, and creates links through history no one has done before. From the ancient Greeks to modern day, Tom does an outstanding job of explaining how what we take for granted today is the evolution of communication over several millennia. If you tweet, post, blog or email, you should read this book.
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A. Menon
4.0 out of 5 stars a historical account of how social, political and scholarly activity has coordinated through history
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2014
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The internet has changed our ability to interact with one another profoundly. Seems obvious to those who actively use the tools so easily available to us like facebook, twitter, whatsapp, etc... Tom Standage gives a perspective on how people have interacted given the mediums of their time in the past and perhaps not so surprisingly, our patterns today resemble patterns of the past. After an era of centralized broadcasting catalyzed by the radio and TV, social participation has reverted back to peer to peer. Writing on the Wall discusses our history and some specific technological breakthroughs that changed the way we interact with one another.

Writing on the Wall documents aspects of social interaction through the ages starting its first analysis with Roman Civilization. The author describes how messengers constantly delivered messages back and forth among the elite to keep each other abreast of the social and political spheres they operated within. The style was conversational and scribes for brevity had systems to efficiently condense common phrases to transcribe more efficiently. The author moves onto the origin of Protestantism with Martin Luther and the use of the printing press to disseminate information via pamphlet. The use of the printing press in spreading information was instrumental in igniting popular discontent with the corruption in the ecclesiastical system. The author discusses how in England poetry and clever and subtle rhymes were a means of earning a reputation and a source of creative outlet for the better educated. The author then discusses the role of the coffee house in the enlightenment and the migration from the social atmosphere of an ale house in which some of the darker aspects of social interaction happened to the coffee house facilitated lively debate and cross polination among intellectuals. The coffeehouse acted as a level playing field for all those who could afford the simple beveridge. The author moved on to the newspaper and how it spread throughout the US and provided for lively political commentary. The stamp tax catalysed a backlash from the media who would be directly affected and were an example of how again, the printing press was a strong force to enable dissemination of information. In the US having multiple points of view was applauded with the hope that the best explanations and reasons would be appreciated, in France papers were used as tools to attack ones enemies. The author shows how public media can be a force for informational dispersion as well as a force for creating chaos and paranoia. The author moves on to how the radio was used and the TV as well. The radio being more peer to peer initially as the cost of being a reciever and a transmitter is not particularly different but after specific incidents where individuals were seen to be interfering with state business, radio transmission went into a more regulated environment dominated by RCA (in the US) and BBC in the UK. The use of centralized media was instrumental in the spread of propoganda and controlling society (as in germany) as well as a medium to advertise, as in the US. The author then takes us into the modern world with the internet and the rebirth of peer to peer communication.

Writing on the Wall is a lively history of ways in which people have interacted through history. Peer to peer dominated social media interactions and marketing is becoming the norm again after a long period in which centralized media was the norm but in reading this work it is clear that this form of interaction has been the norm in the past as well. I enjoyed reading this, its definitely not all new- the ability to publish different points of view as a consequence of the printing press is pretty obvious to most, but the authors discussion of how that medium was used in different ways in different times gives good perspective. Definitely worth reading.
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Maria M. Cadwallader
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for Writing on the Wall
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2014
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I wrote a LONG review of Standage's Writing on the Wall on my blog, [...]l -- and I don't give 5 stars easily.

Here I'll simply say, if you're interested in history, or social networks, or freedom of the press, or freedom of the internet, or the history of social versus mass media, READ THIS BOOK. It's a winner.

I'm still going back over chapters in my copy.
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sanmartinian
3.0 out of 5 stars Tom Standage's Writing on the Wall
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2014
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It is a good book. It is particularly very well researched and starts from a curious idea: the Information Age, in which we live today, with all its paraphernalia of social media, electronic communication, TV, radio, newspapers and whatnot, has always existed.

Technology and means were a bit backward, to say the least, but nothing has changed much: a deserving "nihil novum sub sole" sort of thought.

These qualities justify my three stars and how I wished they were five!

Many things. however, are worthy of consideration by what they miss rather than by what they cover and this book is one of those cases.

Roger Vaillant, a French writer of the mid XXth century - and strangely a communist to make this comment - once coined the word "to Portugalize" to explain the fast decadence he felt both Britain and France were descending into.

His idea was that Portugal, the first global empire ever, had simultaneous got tired of of her past efforts and narrowed her collective views into herself, clean forgetting the World outside and thus missing the will to go beyond her century of glory.

This is very true of British social and historical review today. Standage's book covers extensively and very well what happened in England, particularly after the "printing revolution", treats American events as a sort of corollary and devotes a chapter each to momentous events elsewhere: the Roman Empire, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the birth of Nazism and use of radio, now the Arab spring and modern social networks.

China, Russia, Spanish, Mogul, Persian and so many others go by the wayside. Many had as much population and covered a wider area than the British Empire. And probably as much influence on "writing on the wall" as England ever did.

Nobody in his senses will deny that England had a lion's share in the development of "distribution" of thought as this is what the book is about. But not giving a simple thought on how Genghis Khan managed his internal politics at home while thousands of miles away or Spanish conquerors in South (or North) America kept abreast of court events in Madrid is a failing.

Obviously, one cannot cover everything and this is not my criticism: what is , is that this failure is commonplace in post-imperial Britain as it will be in post-hegemonical USA or was in post-navigational Portugal.

I have to make a strong exception to this general rule of Britain's cultural centrism to, say, Ann Wroe's "Perkin", that covers a subject of almost solely English interest with detailed outside world study. And her other books.

Tom Standage could improve a lot if he read her colleague's books (both work at the same place).

Maybe, next time, I'll add a star.
3 people found this helpful
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Jonathan Cutts
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent study of the history of social media
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2016
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Great study of social media from Roman times - when they wrote on literal walls to now. An overview of journalism and the media and how there is really nothing new under the sun..
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Javier
5.0 out of 5 stars Seguridad de envío.
Reviewed in Mexico on June 17, 2019
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Viene en perfecto estado, eso me dejó satisfecho por completo.
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Daniele Rossi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that has obviously been thoroughly researched by an ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2014
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Who knew social media isn't anything new? Great book that has obviously been thoroughly researched by an author who is obviously passionate in history repeating itself. It really gives you an appreciation of how events in the last 2000 years shaped our culture today.
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Suman Srivastava
5.0 out of 5 stars Mass media was an aberration
Reviewed in India on July 26, 2015
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Brilliant book. Thoroughly researched. Shows that media has always been social. Except for a brief period in the 19th & 20th century when newspapers and then radio & television became industrialised.
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MarcoPolo
4.0 out of 5 stars Aufschlussreich. Und jetzt bitte den Folgeband.
Reviewed in Germany on November 17, 2014
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Kaum zu glauben, dass dieser Autor studierter Maschinenbauer und Informatiker ist. So kundig, wie er historische Zusammenhänge quer über die Epochen ausbreitet: detail- und anekdotenreich, klug im jeweiligen gesellschaftlichen Kontext verstanden. Seine "tour de force" über die tief reichenden Wurzeln von Social Media gerät zu einer höchst erhellenden und kompakten Geschichte der Medien als solche. Und dazu, wie die Medien von der Entwicklung der Gesellschaft getragen waren - und sie selbst entscheidend vorangetragen haben.

Besonders dankenswert: Die Parellelen sozialer Medien der Vergangenheit zu jenen von heute lässt der Autor häufig für sich sprechen, der Leser darf sich selbst seinen Reim machen. Das hält beim Lesen munter. Erst im Epilog versucht der Autor sich an einer breiten Interpretation und Zusammenfassung. Die hat mich nicht so ganz befriedigt: Aus den offensichtlichen Parallelen abzuleiten, dass Social Media powered by Internet schlicht die flottere Fortsetzung der sozialen Medienlandschaft von gestern sei, scheint mir doch zu kurz gegriffen.

Die Analogien, die Tom Standage zwischen den Sozialen Medien von früher und heute herausgearbeitet hat, fand ich aufschlussreich. Die Unterschiede, die er nicht herausgearbeitet hat, fände ich nicht weniger spannend. Den Fortsetzungsband dazu würde ich jedenfalls lesen :- )
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Mac McAleer
5.0 out of 5 stars To share is human
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2013
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Tom Standage delivers a very readable history of the media up to and including the new social media, with the emphasis on the history. The new social media seems so new because it follows a great anomaly, that of the mass media with its centralised control and distribution. We are going back to the  old ways  but in a new, super-networked way.

The author starts with pre-historic humans and their development as highly social animals. Our remote ancestors groomed each other for social cohesion. Later they developed language (and  gossip ). The invention of writing allowed this social activity to be spread across place and time. The growth of literacy allowed social interaction to increase. Printing boosted the process. Now social media and the Internet in general have given it a further boost.

In the beginning were the Greeks, wavering between the spoken and written word. Then came the Romans. Roman patricians, most notably  Cicero , were prolific exchangers of letters; their plebeian inferiors were prolific writers on walls. St Paul kept the embryonic  Christian  movement alive with his epistles (letters). Christianity triumphed, then ossified. Attempts at reform were at first unsuccessful. Then came printing and  Martin Luther . The printing of Lutheran pamphlets was the new media and it went viral. Soon printing came to be seen as a threat not just to the Church but to the state. A reaction set in and severe regulation was imposed. For a while this was effective but control was lost during periods of social crisis such as the  English Civil War  and the American and  French  Revolutions. An important promoter of the pamphlets was the coffeehouse. There, along with pamphlets, could be found the newssheets and newspapers. These had small circulations and often relied on real and imaginary letters from their readers to fill up the space.

All this changed with the development of  mass market media . Steam presses allowed newspapers to reduce their price and increase their circulation, but now advertising was a major part of their income. They delivered a product to consumers, delivering their readers to their advertisers. This was followed by broadcast radio and broadcast  television . The Internet is now eroding this mass market, although perhaps  not as we expected .

THIS BOOK has 250 pages spread across 11 chapters. There is a Notes section of 4 pages which, chapter by chapter, references entries in the 9 pages of the Sources. There is also an Index and a few black and white illustrations; for example: a Roman wax table used for writing short messages; the title page of an English Civil War pamphlet; the interior of a London coffeehouse; the cover of the New York Sun from 1833. The author is the digital editor of The Economist.
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