Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Marshall McLuhan

Routledge, 2001 - Social Science - 392 pages

When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases "global village" and "the medium is the message" in 1964, no-one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. No-one, that is, except for a handful of science fiction writers and Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media was written twenty years before the PC revolution and thirty years before the rise of the Internet. Yet McLuhan's insights into our engagement with a variety of media led to a complete rethinking of our entire society. He believed that the message of electronic media foretold the end of humanity as it was known. In 1964, this looked like the paranoid babblings of a madman. In our twenty-first century digital world, the madman looks quite sane. Understanding Media: the most important book ever written on communication. Ignore its message at your peril.

What people are saying

Review: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

User Review  - Amber - Goodreads

Like many reviews suggest, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a difficult read because of McLuhan's rambles and lacking evidence to support his many ideas on media as an extension of who we ...

Review: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

User Review  - Eric - Goodreads

McLuhan was a visionary bullshitter. Despite having virtually no evidence to back up some of his more absurd claims (some of which are steeped in racism), I'm amazed at just how spot-on some of his ...

About the author

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Communications theorist, born in Canada. He is known as the original "high guru" of media culture and appeared in Woody Allen's Annie Hall as himself.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man; Routledge classics
• Author: Marshall McLuhan
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Routledge, 2001
• ISBN: 0415253977, 9780415253970
• Length: 392 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies