Book Review: Empire and Communications, the Press, a Neglected Factor in the Economic History of the Twentieth Century
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600109 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Author | G. V. Ferguson |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REVIEWS
55
grateful
to
ask
for
more
in
a
survey
already
so
full
and
authoritative.
This
is
an
important
and
illuminating
book.
McGill
University.
C.
C.
Bayley
EMPIRE
AND
COMMUNICATIONS.
By
H.
A.
Innis.
1950.
(London,
Toronto:
Oxford,
230
pp.
$3.25,
menibers
$2.60.)
THE
PRESS,
a
Neglected
Factor
in
the
Economic
History
of
the
Twen-
tieth
Century.
By
H.
A.
Innis.
1949.
(London:
Oxford.
48 pp.
ls.
6d.)
It
has
been
no
secret
that
for
the
last
few
years
Dr.
H.
A.
Innis,
Dean
of
the
School
of
Graduate
Studies at
the
University
of
Toronto,
has
been
busied
with
a study
of
the
problems
inherent
in
mass
communi-
cations.
He
is
one
of
the
most
distinguished
scholars
in
Canada,
and
in
all
likelihood
the
most
original
and
stimulating
in
his
thinking.
It
is
no
surprise
therefore
to
find
that
these
first
results
of
his
study
are
both
sobering and
fruitful.
No
attempt
will be
made
here
to
describe
a
theory,
only
the
outline
of
which
appears
in
these
two
books,
both
first
given
as
lectures
at
the
Universities
of
Oxford
and
London.
It
is,
so
far
as
this
reviewer
knows,
both original
and
striking, for
it
maintains
that
the
mode
of
communica-
tion
employed in
any
organized
society
has
its
own
peculiar
influence
upon the
form
and
character
of
that
society:
that
it
is
not
simply
a
passive
medium
for
the
transmission
of
words,
news
and
opinion,
but
that
because
of
its
special
character,
differing
from
age
to
age,
it
modifies
and
affects
the
development
of
culture.
The
books
demand,
as
they
deserve, careful
reading
which
will
be
richly repaid
not
only
by
an
understanding
of
the
general
theory
but
by
the
scores
of
obiter
dicta
many
of
which deserve
far
more
space.
than
they
are
given by
an author
too careless
of
his
riches.
Further
volumes
are
needed.
They
are
recommended
particularly
to
workers
in
the
fields
of
journalism
and
radio.
It
is
a
classic
professional
assumption
in
those
trades
that
their
esoteric
mysteries
can
be
understood
only by
their
own
high
priests. (The
weaker any religion
becomes
the
more strongly
this
assumption
is
asserted.)
But
all of
them
can,
I
think, learn
something
not
only
of
the
useful
function
they
can
and
do
perform
but
also of
the
obvious
evils
which
the
practice
of
their
crafts
imposes
upon
the
societies
they
serve.
Nor
are these
evils by
any means
contained within
the
modem
dictatorships
with
their
rigid
control
of
mass communication.
The
unbridled
demand
for
news,
the
means
used
to
satisfy
and
stimulate
it,
and
the
pressure
of
commercialization
at
every stage
are
factors
all
of
which
are
acidly,
if
moderately, set
forth.
It
is
a
common
enough
thing
for
the
average
man
or
woman
to
switch
off
the
radio
in
order
to relieve
the tension
of
news bulletins
in
hours
of
crisis.
Dr.
Innis
goes
a
long
way
to
show
that
the hours
of
crisis
themselves
are
To continue reading
Request your trial