From cuneiform to computer keystrokes. Thus when digital technologies of reading and writing arose, soon thereafter people became intensely reflective about what had preceded them: books, paper, pens ...

Schoolchild’s homework in Greek on a wax tablet, Egypt, 2nd century AD (copyright the British Library) LONDON — A 2,000-year-old wax tablet bears inscriptions of the Greek homework of an Egyptian ...

Evidence suggests that writing was invented in southern Iraq sometime before 3000BC. But what happened next? Anyone interested in this question will find How Writing Made Us Human by Walter Stephens ...

About 5,000 years ago, 30 goats changed hands between Sumerians. To record the transaction, a receipt was carved onto a clay tag, about the size of a Post-it. Simple geometric signs represented the ...

In 2010, archaeologist Glenn Schwartz quietly suggested that the history of writing needs, well, rewriting. More than a decade later, he still thinks he's on to something. If he's right, the world's ...

Years ago, I wrote my signature on a piece of white paper, scanned it, and inserted it as a picture at the bottom of my digital letterhead. It’s a perfect example of what Richard Grusin has called the ...

I HAVE promised to speak to you to-night on a large subject, one which, to be treated adequately, would require, not a single lecture or a single hour, but many lectures and many days. The history of ...

The history of student writing at the University of Virginia goes back to the arrival of the first class on Grounds in 1825. From the beginning, students showed concern for robust inquiry and ...