Syllabus

Note: Required readings not linked to in this page will be in the reader.

Week 1

17 Jan: Introduction: Why “History of Information?”

19 Jan: Talking about information

Week 2

24 Jan: Technological Determinism

Required reading:

• Heilbroner, Robert L. 1967. “Do Machines Make History?”, Technology and Culture. 8(3): 335-345.
• Williams, Raymond. 1974. “The Technology and the Society,” pp 1-25 in Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London: Fontana.

Additional material:

• Marx, Leo.  2010.  ”Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept.” Technology & Culture, 51 (3 July).

26 Jan: The First Technologies of Information: Writing Systems

Required reading:

• Marshack, Alexander. 1999. “The Art and Symbols of Ice-Age Man,” in David Crowley, ed. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Allyn & Bacon. Pp. 5-14.
• Robinson, Andrew. 1999. “The Origins of Writing.” In David Crowley, ed. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Allyn & Bacon. Pp. 36-42.

Week 3

31 Jan: Cultural Effects of Writing

Required reading:

• Havelock, Eric. “The Coming of Literate Communication to Western Culture,” in Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, Mike Rose, eds. Perspectives on Literacy. Southern Illinois University, 1988. Pp. 127-134.
• Gough, Kathleen. 1968. Implications of literacy in traditional China and India. In Goody, Jack (ed.). Literacy in Traditional Societies.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 44-56.

Additional material:

• Scribner, Silvia and Michael Cole. 1988. “Unpackaging Literacy.” at Social Science Information, 17, 1 (1978)
• Goody, Jack, and Ian Watt. 1963. The Consequences of Literacy. Comparative Studies in Society and History 5(3), 304-345.

2 Feb: Manuscript Culture

Required reading:

NOTE: We are now going back to “primary texts,” texts that discuss the changes we are interested in as they happened. As you read these texts, one almost 2500 years old, the other more than 500 years old, ask yourself whether these have anything to tell us about information in the modern world. Be prepared to discuss your reactions in class. (The Trithemius is a “parallel text” with Latin facing English. Only those fluent in Latin need read the Latin pages.)

• Plato. 1973 [c. 360 bce]. Phaedrus & the Seventh & Eighth Letters. W. Hamilton, trans. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Read “Prelude,” pp. 21-26 and then “The inferiority of the written to the spoken word,” & “Recapitulation and conclusion,” pp. 95-103.
• Trithemius, Johannes. 1974 [1492]. In Praise of Scribes. R. Behrendt, ed. Lawrence, KA: Coronado Press. Read Chapters I-III, V-VII, XIV.

Week 4

7 Feb: Print Revolution

Required reading:

• Elizabeth Eisenstein, ‘The Emergence of Print Culture in the West, Journal of Communication, Winter (1980): 99-106.
• Adrian Johns’ “Personal Note” in “Historical Perspectives on the Circulation of Information,” American Historical Review 116(5) (December 2012): 1392-1435, pp 1394-6 only.

Additional material:

• [Grafton, Johns, Einstein], “AHR Forum: How Revolutionary was the Print Revolution?“ American Historical Review, 107 (1, February 2002).
• Watch: Fry, Stephen. 2008. Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press. From the series The Machine that Made Us. BBC.

9 Feb: Scientific Revolution

Required reading:

• Sprat, Thomas. 1667. pp 60-79 in The History of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge London. Read from: p. 60, “I come now to the Second Period of my Narration…” to p. 79, “The Royal Society will become Immortal.”

NOTE: The Royal Society was founded in England in 1660. It still exists today. 2010 was its 350th anniversary– and claims to be the world’s oldest scientific society. Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), the author of the work you have to read, was a student of one of the founders. He joined the Society in 1663 and was asked to write the Society’s history. In this book, then, we have a contemporary, insider’s account of the founding of a very influential society, one that people argue was at the center of the “scientific revolution.” Because it was written in the seventeenth century, however, the text is a challenge. But it is manageable and even rewarding with patience. Take it slowly–the section you have to read, pages 60-79, is not very long. If you keep going, what is at first confusing may become clear (or irrelevant). Mark up passages that don’t make sense (as well as those that interest you) to discuss in class, but keep on reading. As you read, ask yourself how much this does or does not resemble what we think of as modern science.

If you click on the links in the text, you will be able to see each page as it appeared in the original book. (And if you just want the plain text of the section you have to read without distractions, you can download it here.)

• “Essay against Quacks,” The Spectator, 1712-15, vol 8, #572.
• Watch Anderson Cooper interview

Additional material:

• Deer, Brian. 2011. “How the Case Against the MMR Vaccine Was Fixed.” BMJ.
• Stubbe, Henry. 1670. ‘Mistakes about the Sweating-Sicknes, and its Cure,’ pp. 23-25 in Legends No Histories, or, A Specimen of Some Animadversions upon the History of the Royal Society. London.

Week 5

14 Feb: Emergence of the Public Sphere

Required reading:

• Cowan, Brian. 2005. “Inventing the Coffee House” and “Penny Universities,” pp. 79-112 in The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse. New Haven. Yale University Press.
• Darnton, Robert. 2000. “An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris.” American Historical Review 105.1.

16 Feb: Reference Books and the Organization of Knowledge

Required reading:

• McArthur, Tom. 1986.  Worlds of Reference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ch. 13, “Reference and Revolution” and Ch. 14, “Thematic Lexicography,” pp. 128-138 in the reader.
• d’Alembert, Jean Le Rond. 1751. Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedie of Diderot, Selections from Part I. (Entire text can be found here.)
• Book of plates from Diderot’s Encylopedie at archive.org. Slide hand icon at bottom to browse.

Week 6

21 Feb: The Rise of Literacy and Standard Language

Required reading:

• McArthur, Tom. 1986.  Worlds of Reference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chs. 12, “The Legislative Urge” and 14, “Thematic Lexicography,” pp. 121-127 and 139-143 in the reader.
• Johnson, Samuel. 1755. “Preface” to the Dictionary (selections; full text here).
• Johnson, Samuel. 1785 (1755). A Dictionary of the English Language. Slide hand icon at the bottom and page forward/back until you come to the definition of dictionary.)

23 Feb: Popular Print, and Popular Literacy in the 18th Century

Required reading:

[Will come up with this ASAP--will aim for online article]

Week 7

28 Feb: Unnoticed Revolutions? Time and Money

Required reading:

• Thompson, E.P. 1967. “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” Past & Present 38 (Dec): 56-97.
• The American Instructor…New York, 1760. Look at the Table of Contents and eTable of Contents; then “Book-keeping,” p 153. 153 to top of 162; and from “To Find the Hours of the Day (p. 242) to “An easy way how to fix a dial north and south” (p. 250).
• “Keeping a Day Book,” pp. 27-29 in An Address to Farmers… Newburyport, MA, 1796.

1 Mar: Literacy and the 19th Century Public Sphere

Required reading:

• Schudson, Michael. 2003. “Where News Came From: The History of Journalism,” Ch. 4 in The Sociology of News, Norton. Pp. 64-89.

Additional material:

• Mindich, David. 1998. “Nonpartisanship,” pp. 40-63 in Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism. New York: NYU Press.
• Stone, Lawrence. 1969. “Literacy and Education in England 1640-1900.” Past & Present 42: 69-139 (necessary to read only to p. 102).

Week 8

6 Mar: Information as Property

Required reading:

• “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.”
• U.S. Constitution. Article 1. Section 8, Clause 8.
• Beauchamp, Christopher. 2010. “Who Invented the Telephone? Lawyers, patents and the judgments of history.” Technology and Culture, 51 (4 October 2010).

8 Mar: Communications Revolution

Required reading:

• “Electro-Magnetic Telegraphs,” H. Rpt 753 (to Accompany Bill H.R. 713) 25th Congress, 2nd Session, April 6, 1838.
• Alexander Graham Bell, “To the Capitalists of the Bell Telephone Company,” Kensington (UK), March 25, 1878.
• Samuel Colt & William Robinson, “To the Public,” New York, May 20, 1846.
• Henry George, “The Western Union Telegraph Company and the California Press,” San Francisco, April 21 1869.

NOTE: These four documents are available in bspace resources. Two are copies made from 19th century originals and consequently are not completely legible. Do your best to read them!

Additional material:

• Friedlander, Amy. 1995. ‘Telegraphy: The Precursor to Telephony, 1837-1873′ pp 10-21 in Amy Friedlander, Natural Monopoly and Universal Service: Telephones and Telegraphs in the U.S. Communications Infrastructure, 1837-1940. Washington, D.C. CNRI.
• Fischer, Claude S. 1992. Chapter 2, The Telephone in America. The Social History of the Telephone to 1940. University of California Press. Berkeley. Pp 33-59.

Week 9

13 Mar: Technologies of the Image

Required reading:

• Newhall, Beaumont. 1964. “Prints from Paper,” “Portraits for the Million,” and “The Faithful Witness,” pp. 32-57 in The History of Photography, From 1839 to the Present Day. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
• Sontag, Susan. 1977. On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus & and Giroux. Chapter 1, “In Plato’s Cave.” The photographs discussed in the chapter can be found here: http://www.gcordon.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/chapter1.htm

Additional Materials:

• Green, David. “Veins of Resemblance: Photography and Eugenics,”Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, Photography (1984), pp. 3-16.

15 Mar: Politics and Propaganda

Required reading:

• Schudson, Michael. 2003. “Where News Came From: The History of Journalism,” Ch. 4 in The Sociology of News, Norton. Pp. 64-89.
• Marlin, Randall, 2002. “History of Propaganda,” pp. 62-94 in Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, Toronto: Broadview Press.

Recommended:

• Watch the first 10-minute segment of “Divide and Conquer,” one of the “Why We Fight” films that Frank Capra made for the Office of War Information in WWII. (If you want more, there are the other segments on this page.) Watch this brief video on the background of these films.

Week 10

20 Mar: Advertising

Required reading:

• McKendrick, Neil. 1982. “Josiah Wedgwood and the Commercialization of the Potteries,” pp. 100-145 in McKendrick et al. Birth of a Consumer Society. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Johnson, Samuel. 1761. [On Advertising], The Idler 40 (Jan 20): 224-229. [The link will take you to the first page of the volume;  just put "224" into the page box and press "Go." ]

Additional material:

• Klein, Naomi. 2000. part 1 from No Logo

22 Mar: MIDTERM EXAM

Week 11 – SPRING BREAK (NO CLASS)

Week 12

3 Apr: Broadcast

Required reading:

• Czitrom, Daniel J. 1982. “The Ethereal Hearth: American Radio from Wireless through Broadcasting, 1892-1940.” in Media and the American Mind. University of North Carolina Press. Pp. 60-88.

Additional material:

• Gitlin, Todd. 2001. “Supersaturation, Or, The Media Torrent And Disposable Feeling,” Ch. 1 of Media Unlimited, Metropolitan Books. Pp. 12-70.

5 Apr: Computer Revolution

Required reading:

• Babbage, Charles. 1835. “Registering Operations” and “On the Division of Mental Labour,” chapters 8 & 20 in On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. [Project Gutenberg edition or Google Books 1832 edition]
• Campbell-Kelly, Martin & William Aspray. 1996. “‘Babbage’s Dream Comes True,” (pp. 53-104) in Martin Campbell-Kelly & William Aspray, Computer: A History of the Information Machine. New York: Basic Books.

Additional material:

• Watch: Englebart, Douglas. 1968. “Doug Englebart 1968 Demo.” On MouseSite.

Week 13

10 Apr: Storage and Search

Required reading:

• Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, “Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing,” KSG Faculty Research Wroking Paper Series RWP07-022.
• Bush, Vannevar. 1945. As We May Think, Atlantic Monthly; 176 (1): 101-108.

Additional material:

• NPR, Intelligence Squared Debate, 2008. Did Google Violate Its ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Motto?
• Berners-Lee, Tim. 2000. Chapters 1-3, pp. 1-34 in Weaving the Web. New York City: HarperCollins.
• Nunberg, Geoffrey. 2010. “Google Book Search: A Disaster for Scholars.” Chronicle Review, August 31.

12 Apr: Visual Literacy?

Required reading:

• Wood, Dennis and John Fels. 1992. The Power of Maps. Pp. 4-15, 34-42, 137-140.
• Conrad, J. 1899. Heart of Darkness. Pp. 1-17 (ending with “Dash it all!).

Week 14

17 Apr: The Internet–Disintermediation, Dematerialization, Disaggregation and Disruption!

NOTE: Bring to class a large broadside newspaper (e.g., the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal)

Required reading:

• Auletta, Ken. 2010. “Publish or Perish.” The New Yorker, April 26.

Additional:

• Darnton, Robert. “Google and the Future of Books,” The New York Review of Books, Feb. 12, 2009. (See also letters in response)
• Warner, James. 2011. “The Future of Books,” McSweeney’s, 3.

19 Apr: Social Implications of the Internet I

Required reading:

• Marshall, Alfred. 1920. “Industrial Organization, Continued. The Concentration of Industries in Particular Localities,” book IV chapter X (section iv.x.1-15), in Principles of Economics. London, Macmillan & Co.
• Cairncross, Frances. 1995. “The Death of Distance,” The Economist 336 (7934 30 September): 16-17.
• Young, Jeffrey R. 2012. “Badges’ Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Monday Jan 9.

Additional:

• Hanford, Emily. 2012. “Don’t Lecture Me.”

Week 15

24 Apr: Social Implications of the Internet II

Required reading:

• Boyd, Danah. (Forthcoming). “White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.” In Digital Race Anthology (Eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White). Routledge.
• Sunstein, Cass R. 2007. “The Polarization of Extremes.”  The Chronicle Review, Dec. 14.

Additional material:

• Nunberg, Geoffrey. 2002. “Will the Internet Always Speak English?” American Prospect, Nov. 30.

26 Apr: Wrap

FINAL EXAM: MAY 9 FROM 11:30-2:30