Forty years ago, Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, a piercing analysis of the effect television had on American knowledge, communication, and culture. This series will revisit Postman’s account of America’s shift from a culture of print to a culture of pictures, and ask how it helps us understand the digital technological shift that Postman never lived to see.

This week, we will look at Postman’s analysis of how media shape culture and our relationship to the world. We will also consider his account of America’s origins as a culture of typography. Can American democracy sustain itself without a dominant culture of print?

On Wednesday, January 29, at 6 PM, join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for this seminar on our lost culture of print. Dinner will be provided. Please register with the form below, and find the reading of Chapter Two of Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death linked below.