Power of reading : from Socrates to Twitter
Furedi, Frank, 1947-2015
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Eminent cultural and social historian Frank Furedi presents here an eclectic and entirely original history of reading. The very act of reading and the choice of reading material endow individuals with an identity that possesses great symbolic significance. Already in ancient Rome, Cicero was busy drawing up a hierarchy of different types of readers. Since that time people have been divided into a variety of categories - literates and illiterates, intensive and extensive readers, or vulgo and discreet readers. In the 19th Century, accomplished readers were praised as 'men of letters' while their moral opposites were described as 'unlettered.' Today distinctions are made between cultural and instrumental readers and scorn is communicated towards the infamous 'tabloid reader.' The purpose of this book is to explore the changing meanings attributed to the act of reading.
Main title:
Power of reading : from Socrates to Twitter / Frank Furedi.
Author:
Furedi, Frank, 1947-, author
Imprint:
London : Bloomsbury, 2015.
Collation:
x, 262 pages ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781472914774 (hbk. :)
Dewey class:
028.9
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
1836814
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