An invaluable supplement to a wide variety of courses related to language, technology, and society.

Terry Joyce, Written Language & Literacy

Richard Sproat's canvas is exceptionally broad, as befits the subject, ranging from the clay tokens of ancient Mesopotamia and the later Egyptian hieroglyphs, through decipherment, pseudo-decipherment and literacy, to the computerization of the Chinese script and the development of machine translation. His expertise, especially in computing, is evident; his examples are varied, apposite and accessible; and his style is lucid, measured and often amusing. Language, Technology, and Society is clearly the fruit of long reflection by the author, and this shows on every page.

Andrew Robinson, author of Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction

Steven Poole's non-fiction choice in The Guardian^