In this book, Amalia Gnanadesikan offers an overview of the history of writing throughout the world from the earliest known examples of cuneiform found at Uruk (in present-day Iraq) to contemporary questions of how printing, typing, and word processing are transforming how we write and think. The goal of her book, she writes, is “to shed light on how this remarkable technology actually works, where it came from, and why it looks so different in different parts of the world” (2). Ch. 1 introduces the book's main ideas. Writing represents, but outlasts, the spoken communication humans have always used, transforming language from a temporal phenomenon into a spatial one. This characteristic is common to all writing systems despite differences in the systems themselves and the reasons they were developed. Writing systems take three forms: logograms, representing the meaning and pronunciation of morphemes; syllabaries, representing pronounced syllables; and alphabets, representing individual phonemes. Throughout the book, Gnanadesikan clearly conveys these concepts through detailed explanation, fascinating historical narratives, and illustrations. Along with the history of each written language, Gnanadesikan also discusses translation efforts and the historical contingencies that have determined which writing forms have been preserved.

In Chs. 2 through 5, Gnanadesikan describes ancient logographic writing systems, beginning with the oldest Sumerian and Akkadian logosyllabaries. Other topics covered include Egyptian hieroglyphics, the development of writing and paper in China, and the Mesoamerican Maya script. Although these scripts look very different and developed for various purposes in diverse regions (e.g. Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions were often intended to commemorate the past whereas Mayan writing seems to have been inspired by the use of complex calendars), they share the characteristic of being logographic. Chs. 6 through 8 describe syllabaries, including Linear B, the script first used to write Greek; the Japanese system of two syllabaries and one set of logograms; and the Cherokee writing system, developed single-handedly by Sequoyah to record a previously unwritten language. In Chs. 9 through 13, Gnanadesikan gives a historical account of the alphabet, which was simple enough to be adapted easily to new languages, but has rarely changed over time. That writing systems resist change is a theme emphasized in her account of the alphabet, whose basic structure has changed relatively little in its evolution from Ugaritic script to modern-day forms including the Greek, Roman, and Cyrillic alphabets. In the final chapter, she discusses “secondary writing technologies,” including printing, typing, word processing, and hypertext. While these have preserved the forms of writing, they have changed attitudes toward, and uses of, writing.

This informative, yet accessible and entertaining, book will be of interest to readers with an interest in the history and evolution of world languages, as well as to students and instructors looking for a comprehensive and enjoyable overview of the subject.