{"product_id":"the-networked-wilderness-matt-cohen-9780816660988","title":"The Networked Wilderness: Communicating in Early New England","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Networked Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e, Matt Cohen examines communications systems in early New England and finds that, surprisingly, struggles over information technology were as important as theology, guns, germs, or steel in shaping the early colonization of North America. Colonists in New England have generally been viewed as immersed in a Protestant culture of piety and alphabetic literacy. At the same time, many scholars have insisted that the culture of the indigenous peoples of the region was a predominantly oral culture. But what if, Cohen posits, we thought about media and technology beyond the terms of orality and literacy?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReconceptualizing aural and inscribed communication as a spectrum, \u003ci\u003eThe Networked Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e bridges the gap between the history of the book and Native American systems of communication. Cohen reveals that books, paths, recipes, totems, and animals and their sounds all took on new interactive powers as the English negotiated the well-developed informational trails of the Algonquian East Coast and reported their experiences back to Europe. Native and English encounters forced all parties to think of each other as audiences for any event that might become a kind of \"publication.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing sources ranging from Thomas Morton's Maypole festival to the architecture of today's Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Cohen shows that the era before the printing press came to New England was one of extraordinary fertility for communications systems in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Matt Cohen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816660980\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816660988\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.69lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.71h x 6.70w x 0.61d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2010 pg. 245","brand":"Matt Cohen","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44120334467327,"sku":"9780816660988","price":25.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e105a5e8-2edd-4c1d-b34b-d8f38c65cdb6.jpg?v=1687413778","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-networked-wilderness-matt-cohen-9780816660988","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}