The Story of Writing

Sufficiently complex to survey material, larger font helps wonderfully.

While Andrew Robinson's THE STORY OF WRITING may be beneath scholars and serious students of scripts and writing systems, for the rest of us it is a fine introduction.Following an excellent introductory overview of writing in general, there are thirteen chapters. Representative ones are "Reading the Rosetta Stone"; "Sound, Symbol and Script"; "Cuneiform"; "Mayan Glyphs"; and "Chinese Writing". Each chapter, in turn, consists of a half dozen or so topics, each of which receives one or two pages. For example, the chapter on "Undeciphered Scripts" has brief discussions of the following subjects: the difficulties of decipherment; Indus script; Cretan Linear A (still undeciphered, though Linear B is the earliest European script that we can understand); the Phaistos Disc; proto-Elamite script; Etruscan; and Rongorongo, from Easter Island.The book is copiously, and beautifully, illustrated, with photographs of ancient scripts and inscribed artifacts, as well as charts and maps. The illustrations and text are well integrated. The writing itself is ideal for a book of this sort -- neither simplistic nor overly academic. In addition, the book is carefully and intricately formatted, so much so that it is doubtful that the book could be satisfactorily rendered in digital form (just as Japanese kanji characters defy satisfactory electronic data processing).One theme of the book is that "the way we write at the start of the 3rd millennium AD is not different from the way that the ancient Egyptians wrote". Another is that phonography is essential to fully developed writing systems: "full writing cannot be divorced from speech; words, and the scripts that employ words, involve both sounds and signs".THE STORY OF WRITING would be a good addition to any general library.

Covers many alphabets, etc. with excellent analysis. I learned much and had some corrections to what I thought I knew.

This is a beautifully illustrated, authoritative account of the development of writing from neolithic times to the present in all regions of the world. Its an easy read and superb reference as well. It is well worth its low cost.

I complained about the delivery. I was wrong. The delivery was perfect.

This book gives the basic history of the dicyphering of a number of ancient scripts. It has some nice photos and illustrations. It is not a dictionary or an encyclopedia by any means. It covered the mainstream ancient scripts such as Cuneform and Egyptian, but barely touched on the more ancient,esoteric and mysterious scripts such as ,Neolithic pictographic, Sumerian pictographic, ancient Greek linear A, and the Indus valley scripts. I would have enjoyed it more if it push the envelope a little more.

Very well written book and has lots of graphics to show what the text is talking about. Great book! Would highly recommend!

A captivating and informative look at the history of a type of communication unique to only our species. How it began and how it has progressed over the eons, and maybe where it may go from here.

Estremamente interessante per chi vuole capire com'è nata la scrittura. Bella impaginazione. Magnifiche fotografie

I bought this book several years ago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since then I bought it twice as a present. It's indeed very interesting and well done.

This is a nice, picturesque, quaint secondary work. I was disappointed to note the absence of Armenian and Georgian, two beautiful alphabets, which would have added so much more to the work.

What a wonderful book, full of eye opening information. Shared with severak friends. All very impressed. Great book.

The most instructive and interesting book about the history and overview of the writing. An excellent introduction.