Reviews for Information Revolutions in the History of the West

The average rating for Information Revolutions in the History of the West based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-25 00:00:00 Maria Lopez Nice book by a highly undervalued scholar. Albeit the structuring of the chapters is a bit unusual and confusing in the beginning, it is a good read (by just reading the intro + conclusion one gets his points as well). According to Dudley the speed and the way of how information flows between people is responsible for historical discontinuities. It's all about scale economies (unit costs fall as volume of production increases) and network effects (the gain for each member when one new node is added). "...did the beginning of a new period alter the importance of informal scale economies relative to network effects" is the question that he essentially asks himself. He is somewhat close a bit to Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction. The four sets of changes he identifies: 1. the standardisation of the Latin language which made possible an increase in literacy [Collapse of Carolingian Empire, Normans in England - upcoming Feudal system] 2. Gutenberg's printing press (~1450, Mainz) [Wycliff, Hus fail but Luther does not; James I Bible (linguistic transformation, literacy doubled)] 3. Steampowered printing press [Reform Bill 1832 (franchise extension), Secession 1861 - also due to newspaper circulation?] 4. Mass circulation of information also WWI entrance of Britain? War of US on Spain 1898

Review # 2 was written on 2011-01-28 00:00:00 Tony Nurtin it breaks things down well.