The Gutenberg Parenthesis

An accomplished and detailed survey of life between the brackets. * Wall Street Journal * A refreshingly sanguine take. -- Houman Barekat * The Guardian * Provocative and fizzing with ideas. -- Alan Rusbridger * Prospect * The Gutenberg Parenthesis follows the development of printing and its impact on society right up to the present day … Jarvis’s tempo is … fast and compelling, sweeping the reader along from Gutenberg to the present digital predicament facing society. -- Richard Ovenden * Financial Times * Jeff Jarvis is the ideal guide for this fast-paced history of communication. Shrewd, witty and always generous to his fellow authors, this book is crammed with pointed observation and profound reflection on the present and future of information culture. As print transitions to the digital age, Jarvis explores the potentialities and dangers of unbridled access to information as a realist who sees a path to sanity as our media turbulence finds a new normal. * Andrew Pettegree, Wardlaw Professor of History, University of St. Andrews, UK * Puts a sharp focus on how journalism will evolve in the digital age. * It's All Journalism * Jeff Jarvis magisterially charts how the invention of printing shifted power from individuals and communities to experts and the undifferentiated 'masses,' and then brilliantly shows how the internet is reversing this half-millenium shift. Information in print became a controlled commodity with enforced scarcity that reinforced language and institutional borders and power. Initially extending the reach of thought, printing shaped that thought; the medium became the message, on steroids. Digital now makes possible and even insists upon richer, less controlled exchange of ideas, including fakes. What we need, Jarvis makes clear, is not censorship of our chaotic global conversation but clear goals, guardrails, and institutions to ensure inclusion, accuracy, and privacy. We are all facing this together, and are now all on notice to take up Jarvis' challenge. * Anthony Marx, President and CEO, New York Public Library * Jeff Jarvis’ The Gutenberg Parenthesis invites disenchanted media users to scour the history of print for lessons that may help us build a better future for media. No one has thought as nimbly as Jarvis about how communications shape societies, and his polemic gives hope for these disenchanted times. * Leah Price, Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of English, Rutgers University, USA * The Gutenberg Parenthesis is a hopeful treatise that addresses the anxieties of social change and transformation. […] Jarvis’s book is a brilliant compilation of multidisciplinary research and scholarly debates (including frequent appearances by Elizabeth Eisenstein, Marshall McLuhan, and Adrian Johns) that would make a great addition to reference lists in foundational Book History courses. Packed with entertaining print culture trivia, it also promises to interest general readers as well as print culture and digital humanities scholars. * Sharp news *