The Medium Is the Message – McLuhan’s »Understanding Media“, 1st printing

Beschreibung

Marshall McLUHAN: Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man. New York, Toronto, London: McGraw-Hill 1964.

Demy 8vo (22:15,5 cm). [Front leaf], [not numbered p. I-V], p. VI-VII, [1 p. (blank)], [not numbered p. 1-3], p. 4-359, [1 p. (author’s biography), [end leaf]. Original publisher’s white cloth cover with white (title) and gilt (name, publisher) printing on black spine label, in original publisher’s multicolour illustrated dust wrapper (designed by Abner Grabnoff).

1st printing of the 1st edition of Marshall McLuhan’s breaking and visionary media theory that paradigmatically altered our view on communication on the doorsteps of the electronic age. With »Understanding Media« and it’s core statement „The Medium Is the Message.“ (Chapter 1) the Canadian born philosopher McLuhan, who already had delivered an exhausting analysis of the importance of printing for the development of Human conciousness and culture (»The Gutenberg Galaxy« 1962), was the first scientist to predict the forthcoming changes of the Conditio Humana as they would result from electronic technology decades before the started to happen. He also consequently interpreted all human technologies as extensions of man and foresaw the „global village“ of the World Wide Web and Social Media.

Dust wrapper with a few small chips along the margins (all tears protected with small strips of acid-free tape), two small faults on front cover (see picture), three slim lines of black colour (see picture) on front and rear side, in parts minimally time stained; upper right corner of front board slightly bumped, as well as end papers time stained, otherwise clean copy of the 1st printing of this milestone work, with a well preserved, not price clipped dust jacket.