The first half of this book traces how the “reading revolution” was displaced by screens, while the second half explores some of the worrying consequences of this retreat from reading.

FOR MOST of human history, reading was a minority pursuit, practised by an elite of priests, scholars and administrators. Though Gutenberg’s press made it possible to mass produce the printed word, it was not until the eighteenth century that reading became a popular pastime. Historians have since linked this popularity to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of capitalism and the advent of modern democracy. But, in The New Dark Ages, journalist James Marriott warns that the process which began with Gutenberg and reached its peak with the mass literacy of the nineteenth century has reversed.

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