Spring 2024: (HI 792) Information: From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg with Professor Ross Bassett

We think of ourselves as living in an Information Age, but historian Robert Darnton has argued "every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that communications systems have always shaped events.” Over the last 30 years historians have shown how examining the ways a society generates and spreads information can produce new insights into those societies. This course takes a very broad view of information and information technologies, looking at computers, but also books, postal systems, photography, and language itself. Although this course will have a heavy emphasis on Europe and North America, we will look at cases covering many parts of the world, from colonial India to China to Latin America. Please contact me if you have any questions.