<<The>> Media Environment of Political Thought : Rousseau, Marx, and the Politics of Selfies

The Media Environment of Political Thought offers a novel way of looking at the tradition of political thought by reconstructing the historical media landscapes in which great political texts of the past were produced. It brings to light the little-charted media environments in which two political innovators—Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx—operated and analyzes both how writing systems shaped their intellectual growth, and how they used those systems to communicate their pioneering ideas. The historical analysis is followed by a critical reflection on the future of political thought in the age of computer-mediated communication. Together the three studies presented in the book conjure up a view of the tradition of political thought as highly regulated stream of information shaped by historical writing systems. The Media Environment of Political Thought: Rousseau, Marx, and the Politics of Selfies offers a novel way of looking at the tradition of political thought by reconstructing the historical media landscapes in which great political texts of the past were produced. This book brings to light the little-charted media environments in which three political innovators - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, and Fredrich Engels - operated. It analyzes how those media environments shaped the three thinkers' intellectual growth and how they used their media settings to communicate their groundbreaking ideas. The historical analysis is followed by a critical reflection on the future of political thought in the age of computer-mediated communication. Together, the three studies presented in this book take us to three revolutionary moments - revolutionary in politics and in media - with the aim of tracing the reciprocal relations between landmark historical media settings and pioneering political perspectives. -- from back cover Through an analysis of the environments of Rousseau and Marx, this book explores the tradition of political thought as highly regulated stream of information shaped by historical writing systems and considers the future of political thought in the computer age.