Harold A Innis - Böcker

This classic book, Harold Innis's last, returns to print with a new introduction by James Carey. An elaboration of Innis's earlier theories, Changing Concepts of Time looks at then-new technological changes in communication and considers the different ways in which space and time are perceived. Innis explores military implications of the U.S. constitution, freedom of the press, communication monopolies, culture, and press support of presidential candidates, among other interesting and diverse topics.

This classic book, Harold Innis's last, returns to print with a new introduction by James Carey. An elaboration of Innis's earlier theories, Changing Concepts of Time looks at then-new technological changes in communication and considers the different ways in which space and time are perceived. Innis explores military implications of the U.S. constitution, freedom of the press, communication monopolies, culture, and press support of presidential candidates, among other interesting and diverse topics.

At the start of his career Innis set out to explain the significance of price rigidities in the cultural, social, and political institutions of new countries; by the end of his intellectual journey he had become one of the most influential critics of modernity. The essays in this collection address a variety of themes, including the rise of industrialism and the expansion of international markets, staples trades, critical factors in Canadian development, metropolitanism and nationality, the problems of adjustment, the political economy of communications, the economics of cultural change, and Innis's conception of the role of the intellectual as citizen. Innis succeeded as few others have in providing an astute and comprehensive account of the economic and social forces shaping modernity. His abiding interest in the contradictory and unintended consequences of markets in general - the dominant structure of modern economic activity - gave rise to the rich legacy of his prodigious output.

The Cod Fisheries, originally published in 1938 and revised and reissued in 1954, presented a new interpretation of European and North American history that has since become a classic. With that rare skill he possessed of weaving together the various strands of a complex and difficult historical situation, Innis showed how the exploitation of the cod fisheries from the fifteenth century to the twentieth has been closely tied up with the whole economic and political development of Western Europe and North America.The relationship of the fisheries to the maritime greatness of Britain and to the growth of New England as an important commercial power is particularly stressed; and in the examination of the conflicts growing up about this industry are revealed the forces underlying the struggle between Britain and France for control of the new world, and the forces which led to the collapse of thye British Empire in America and the rise of an independent new world political power. The political struggles with Nova Scotia and the long conflict with the United States, continuing far into the nineteenth century, are examined in careful detail.

One of the most influential books ever published in Canada, Harold A. Innis's The Bias of Communication has played a major part in reshaping our understanding of history, communication, and media theory. First published in 1951, this masterful collection of essays explores the relationship between a society's communication media and that community's ability to maintain control over its development. Innis considers political and economic forces in the context of social change and the role of communication in the creation of both ancient and modern empires.In an essay for this new edition, Innis biographer Alexander John Watson examines the reasons why Innis, at the height of his success as an economic historian, embarked on new research areas of communications and empire, as well as the ways in which Marshall McLuhan's interpretations of Innis changed and de-politicized Innis's work.As important today as it was when first published, The Bias of Communication is essential reading for historians and scholars of communication and media studies.

Political Economy in the Modern State is Harold Innis’s transitional and, in some respects, his most transformative book. Completed in 1946, it is a collection of fifteen chapters plus a remarkable Preface selected and crafted to address four main themes: the problem of power and peace in the post-War era; the ascent of specialized and mechanized forms of knowledge involving, most particularly, the media, the state, and the academy; the crisis facing civilization and, more generally, the modern penchant for unreflexive short-term thinking in the face of mounting contradictions; and Innis’s growing focus on what would be called media bias.In this new edition, editors Robert E. Babe and Edward A. Comor provide not only a general introduction to Innis’s largely forgotten book but also dedicated introductions to each of its fifteen chapters and a comprehensive index. Together, Babe and Comor demonstrate how Innis’s volume reflects a shift in Innis’s focus, away from analytical relativism towards, instead, a reflexive search for objective truths.

Originally published in 1950, Harold A. Innis’s Empire and Communications is considered to be one of the classic works in media studies, yet its origins have received little attention. Ambitious in its scope, the book spans five millennia, tracing a path of development around the globe from 2900 BCE to the twentieth century and revealing the cyclical interplay between communications and power structures across space and time.In this new edition, William J. Buxton pays close attention to handwritten glosses that Innis added to a copy of the original edition and the revisions undertaken by his widow, Mary Q. Innis. A new introduction provides a detailed account of how the book emerged from lectures that Innis delivered at Oxford University in 1948, as well as how it related to other presentations Innis made in Britain during the same period. It explores how Innis sought to enrich his analysis by incorporating material related to phenomena such as war, education, religion, culture, geography, and finance. An insightful foreword by Marshall McLuhan is included, as well as bibliographical references and a revised index.By providing a narrative based on extensive notes from Innis, this edition makes Empire and Communications more accessible and contributes to the broad efforts to shape Innis’s legacy.

Harold A. Innis helped to found the field of Canadian economic history. He is best known for the "staples thesis" which dominated the discourse of Canadian economic history for decades.This volume collects Innis’ published and unpublished essays on economic history, from 1929 to 1952, thereby charting the development of the arguments and ideas found in his books The Fur Trade in Canada and The Cod Fisheries. These essays capture Innis’ ever evolving views on the practices and uses of economic history as well as Canadian economic history. The new introduction written by prominent historian Matthew Evenden provides a fresh take on Innis life’s work and situates the essays in the context of his scholarship as well as recent studies on Canadian economic history. This volume offers invaluable insight into one of Canada’s most original thinkers and his interpretation of our nation’s history.

Political Economy in the Modern State is Harold Innis’s transitional and, in some respects, his most transformative book. Completed in 1946, it is a collection of fifteen chapters plus a remarkable Preface selected and crafted to address four main themes: the problem of power and peace in the post-War era; the ascent of specialized and mechanized forms of knowledge involving, most particularly, the media, the state, and the academy; the crisis facing civilization and, more generally, the modern penchant for unreflexive short-term thinking in the face of mounting contradictions; and Innis’s growing focus on what would be called media bias.In this new edition, editors Robert E. Babe and Edward A. Comor provide not only a general introduction to Innis’s largely forgotten book but also dedicated introductions to each of its fifteen chapters and a comprehensive index. Together, Babe and Comor demonstrate how Innis’s volume reflects a shift in Innis’s focus, away from analytical relativism towards, instead, a reflexive search for objective truths.

This second volume of economic documents resumes the story of the development of Canada as told by contemporary sources. Newspaper accounts of economic forces and factors, contemporary writings by statesmen and business men, poems depicting current situations, official documents—all have been included. The volume divides the period into two eras, 1783-1850 and 1850-85. The basis of classification of entries is by topics and geographic sections. It is hoped that the material which follows will amplify and illustrate the blend of materialistic and non-materialistic factors which has determined the nature of Canadian history and will allow students in Canadian universities to study with some degree of fullness the development of the economic institutions of their native land.

This volume of essays in Political Science is a tribute to the character and work of Professor Edward Johns Urwick who in June, 1937, retired under the age limit from the chair of Political Economy in the University of Toronto. It is the first volume of a series in Political Economy to be published by the Maurice Cody Foundation and the University of Toronto Press. It includes articles written by colleagues of Professor Urwick in the Department of Political Economy on subjects in which they had special interest, and articles which are summaries of work done by holders of the Maurice Cody Fellowship since its establishment in 1928. By a happy coincidence, this volume is issued fifty years after the chair in Political Economy was founded.