How has the creation and use of media evolved within 2,500 years of human history? What roles in its development have been played by technology, politics and entertainment?

These questions form the focus of the collaborative work of c. 60 experts. Contextualising our current understanding of media within an expansive survey ranging from Antiquity to the present day, they draw on perspectives from media and film studies, literary studies and classics, as well as history, to form a complete picture.

Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.

The six volumes cover: 1. – Antiquity (500 BCE - 500 CE); 2. – Medieval Age (500 - 1450); 3. – Renaissaince (1450 - 1650) ; 4. – Age of Enlightenment (1650 - 1800); 5. – Age of Empire (1800 - 1920); 6. – Modern Age (1920 – 2000+).

Themes (and chapter titles) are: production; transmission; entertainment; consumers; control; identities; news and networks; and distance.

The page extent is approximately 1,730 pp with c. 300 illustrations. Each volume opens with notes on contributors, a series preface and an introduction, and concludes with notes, bibliography and an index.

The Cultural Histories Series
A Cultural History of Media is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see https://www.bloomsburyhistory.com/bloomsbury-cultural-history).