About the Author

Steven Roger Fischer is Director of the Institute of Polynesian Languages and Literatures in Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of A History of Writing (2003), A History of Reading (2004), Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island (2006) and Islands: From Atlantis to Zanzibar (2012), all available from Reaktion Books.

Reviews

`Steven Fischer’s intriguing and ambitious study explores a vast terrain . . . Throughout, he addresses hard questions that bear directly on fundamental and distinctive aspects of human nature and achievement. A stimulating and highly informative inquiry’ – Noam Chomsky; `[A] delightful and unexpectedly accessible book . . . a virtuoso tour of the linguistic world’ – The Economist; `Few who read this remarkable study will regard language in quite the same way again’ – The Good Book Guide