The networked wilderness : communicating in early New England / Matt Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Matt, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication--United States--History--17th century.

Communication.

Communication--New England--History--17th century.

Literacy--New England--History--17th century.

Literacy.

Books and reading--New England--History--17th century.

Books and reading.

Indians of North America--Communication.

Indians of North America.

History.

New England.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 237 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2010]

Summary:

In The Networked Wilderness, Matt Cohen examines communications systems in early New England and finds that, surprisingly, struggles over information technology were as important as theology, guns, germs, or steel in shaping the early colonization of North America. Colonists in New England have generally been viewed as immersed in a Protestant culture of piety and alphabetic literacy. At the same time, many scholars have insisted that the culture of the indigenous peoples of the region was a predominantly oral culture. But what if, Cohen posits, we thought about media and technology beyond the terms of orality and literacy?

Reconceptualizing aural and inscribed communication as a spectrum, The Networked Wilderness bridges the gap between the history of the book and Native American systems of communication. Using sources ranging from Thomas Morton's Maypole festival to the architecture of today's Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Cohen show that the era before the printing press came to New England was one of extraordinary fertility for communications systems in America.

Contents:

Native audiences

Good noise from New England

Forests of gestures

Multimedia combat and the Pequot War.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780816660971

0816660972

9780816660988

0816660980

OCLC:

351319371