Did the invention of cities give rise to the invention of writing? Is it true that the printing press made the Reformation possible? Has social media destroyed democracy? This course will attempt to answer these questions in weekly discussions that explore how “revolutions” in communications’ technologies–from ancient cuneiform to modern coding–have altered the course of human history. In complementary weekly “digital practica” we will examine cutting-edge digital archives and learn how to wield the new digital tools that are transforming how historians engage with the past in the wake of our latest digital communications “revolution.”
