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Tyranny of E-mail: The 4,000 Year Journey to Your Inbox

October 13, 2009

John Freeman writer

Freelance book reviewer John Freeman warns us about The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year-Journey to Your Inbox.

We are all familiar with the pull of our e-mail: it often sits open on our computers throughout the day, notifying us immediately if we have received a message and dragging us away from whatever work we had been doing. John Freeman's new book takes us back to an earlier time when written communication was slower and more thoughtful, from the painstaking carving of love poems into clay tablets to the lost art of letter-writing, and asks what toll our current information-saturated lifestyle is taking on us as individuals and as a society. Ultimately he enters a plea for communication that is more selective and nuanced and, above all, more sociable.

Topics: Business & Economics | Culture & Identity | History | Literature & Philosophy | Media & Technology | People & Places

Tags: Addiction | cell phone | email | Internet | Print | slow communication | snail mail | TV & Radio | Community Building | Web Media | Non-Fiction | How To & Hobbies | Writing Process | Lifestyle | North American

Presented By WGBH and Harvard Book Store:

Harvard Book Store

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The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox

Author: John Freeman

Publisher: Scribner (2009)

Binding: Hardcover, 256 pages

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