The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting by Anne Trubek

Monday, February 5 through Friday, February 16, 2024. Read by Melvin Hinton.

In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures have become scrawls. Some argue it’s a sign of society in decline. In The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, Anne Trubek uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity–from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today. Each innovation over the millennia has threatened existing standards and entrenched interests. Trubek argues that the decline and even elimination of handwriting from daily life does not signal a decline in civilization, but rather the next stage in the evolution of communication.

(Bloomsbury; ISBN: 9781620402153)