Sixties media theorist Marshall McLuhan understood the implications of emerging mass media on society. This book revisits McLuhan's insights in the wake of our digital communications and technological progress. How have his concepts held up? Very well indeed, apparently, as we see in this book, which presents excerpts of McLuhan's work and commentary from today's thinkers about media, including Lewis Lapham, Neil Postman, and Robert Fulford. McLuhan has been called the patron saint of the digital revolution, and this book is a testament and proof that he deserves the title.


From Library Journal
Most folks know McLuhan as the Sixties sage who coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and the "global village." This nifty little book pulls together many of McLuhan's aphoristic observations in the context of writers such as Neil Postman (The End of Education, LJ 9/1/95) and Louis Rossetto (from Wired magazine). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the visual juxtaposition of current iconic images?e.g., O.J. Simpson, the Gulf War, and Rodney King?with McLuhanisms of the 1960s. Thirty years ago McLuhan was right, today he is really right, and this book explains why for the digitally confused.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Communications thinker and prophet Marshall McLuhan gave us the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village". Today, with the explosion of electronic technologies and on-line communication, his ideas are more relevant than ever. Forward Through the Rearview Mirror is an evocative and visually exciting exploration of McLuhan's life and work in the context of the information age. The book consists of short prose passages, aphorisms, interviews, letters, and dialogues by McLuhan -- many never before published -- interwoven with biographical text by his biographer Philip Marchand and commentary by such cultural critics as Louis Rossetto, Neil Postman, Camille Paglia, and Lewis Lapham.

The book is organized into four parts: Global Village and Identity, Medium is the Message, and Extensions of Man. In keeping with McLuhan's style of speaking and writing, the text consists of a series of brief entries, ranging in length from a single line to a page. The entries have been selected and positioned so that they can be read consecutively as a narrative or randomly as individual ideas. Throughout, the material by McLuhan appears in a different typeface and color from the material by others, to make the two clearly distinguishable. Part book, part magazine, part storyboard, this multidimensional look at the ideas and life of the patron saint of Wired magazine will appeal to anyone interested in technology, contemporary thought, and popular culture.

FROM THE PUBLISHER