The Information

From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory. 
 
Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live.

A New York Times Notable Book
A Los Angeles Times and Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of the Year
Winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 

Winner of PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 2012 Short-listed for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2012 Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Awards 2012

“"With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another." Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011 "So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it… The Information is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand." New York Times "[A] tour de force…This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness…Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year." Booklist , starred review "With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick leads us on a journey from one form of communication information to another…Gleick's exceptional history of culture concludes that information is indeed the blood, the fuel, and the vital principle on which our world runs." Publishers Weekly, starred review "Rich and fascinating." Washington Post "No author is better equipped for such a wide- ranging tour than Mr. Gleick. Some writers excel at crafting a historical narrative, others at elucidating esoteric theories, still others at humanizing scientists. Mr. Gleick is a master of all these skills." Wall Street Journal "Gleick presses rousing tales from the history of human communication into the service of one Very Big Idea…he does what only the best science writers can: take a subject of which most of us are only peripherally aware and put it at the center of the universe." Time "A wide-ranging, deeply researched and delightfully engaging history…" Los Angeles Times "The gifted science writer James Gleick explains how we've progressed from seeing information as the expression of human thought and emotion to looking at it as a commodity that can be processed, like wheat or plutonium. It's a long, complicated, and important story, and in Gleick's hands it's also a mesmerizing one…As a celebration of human ingenuity, The Information is a deeply hopeful book." Nicholas Carr, Daily Beast "A grand narrative if ever there was one…Gleick provides lucid expositions for readers who are up to following the science and suggestive analogies for those who are just reading for the plot. And there are anecdotes that every reader can enjoy…A prodigious intellectual survey." New York Times Book Review "A highly ambitious and generally brilliant effort to tie together centuries of disparate scientific efforts to understand information as a meaningful concept…By the close of the book you cannot think of information as you might have before. It has become, quite palpably, something different than almost anything we encounter: resistant to decay and capable of perfect self-reproduction. It outlasts the organic beings who create it, and, by replication, the inorganic mediums used to store it. The Information -not unlike other science books that tackle big human quests for understanding-at times bears more than a passing resemblance to a spiritual text." Slate "When collected together in this coherent historical narrative, [his observations] do feel 'revelatory,' as his publisher claims…Gleick is wrestling with truly profound material, and so will the reader. This is not a book you will race through on a single plane trip. It is a slow, satisfying meal." Columbia Journalism Review " Accessible and engrossing." -Library Journal "The author's skills as an interpreter of science shine…for completist cybergeeks and infojunkies, the book delivers a solid summary of a dense, complex subject." -Kirkus "Extraordinary in its sweep…Gleick's story is beautifully told, extensively sourced, and continually surprising." Brainiac, Boston Globe online "Entertaining, funny and clever." New Scientist "A brilliant, panoramic view of how we save and communicate knowledge...and provides thrilling portraits of the geniuses behind the inventions. Provocative and illuminating." People "A commanding chronicle of the information revolution…tantalizing." philly.com "An ambitious, sprawling work." Kirkus "Absorbing… The Information is lyrical, patient, impeccably researched, and full of interesting digressions." The Boston Globe "Tremendously enjoyable. Gleick has an eye and ear for the catchy detail and observation…offers a broad and fascinating foundation, impressive in its reach. A very good read, certainly recommended." The Complete Review "Heady…This intellectual history is intoxicating-thanks to Gleick's clear mind, magpie-styled research and explanatory verve." Cleveland.com "To write a history of information…it's beyond ambitious-it's audacious. But James Gleick pulls it off…a gracefully written book." USA Today "A book about everything…Gleick sees the world as an endlessly unfolding opportunity in which 'creatures of the information' might just recognize themselves." Shelfari "An interesting and detailed history of how we've moved from an alphabet to words, writing, dictionaries, etc." Alpha "Imaginatively conceived and staggeringly researched…a transformative work." The Phoenix.com "[Gleick] remains a gifted writer with a passion for a subject that would easily drown many of us." About.com "Expertly draws out neglected names and stories from history…Gleick's skill as an expicator of counterintuitive concepts makes the chapters on logic, the stuff even most philosophy majors slept through in class, brim with tension." Oregonlive.com "This is the page-turner you never knew you desperately wanted to read." The Stranger Slog "This is an amazing book. If you have any designs on being a professor of information, you should read this book slowly and thoughtfully." ALA TechSource "The most ambitious, compelling, insert-word-of-intellectual-awe-here book to read this year." The Atlantic "Wide-ranging and fascinating." New York Journal of Books "The most comprehensive book written, to date, about information. An amazing erudite and yet highly readable account…amongst the most profound books written about technology." Tech Crunch, TCTV "Very fascinating…It will make readers see the world more intelligently than before. Essent”

“Magnificent…this elegant, insightful study reminds us that we have always been adrift in an incomprehensible universe.” –Los Angeles Times, Best Books of 2011

“Grand, lucid and awe-inspiring…information is about a lot more than what human beings have to say to each other. It’s the very stuff of reality, and never have its mysteries been offered up with more elegance or aplomb.” –Salon, Best of 2011 

“With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another.” –Publishers Weekly, Top 100 Books of 2011

“Ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical.” –New York Times 
 
“Gleick does what only the best science writers can do: take a subject of which most of us are only peripherally aware and put it at the center of the universe.” –Time

"The Information isn't just a natural history of a powerful idea; it embodies and transmits that idea, it is a vector for its memes . . . and it is a toolkit for disassembling the world. It is a book that vibrates with excitement." --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

“No author is better equipped for such a wide-ranging tour than Mr. Gleick. Some writers excel at crafting a historical narrative, others at elucidating esoteric theories, still others at humanizing scientists. Mr. Gleick is a master of all these skills.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Extraordinary in its sweep . . . Gleick’s story is beautifully told, extensively sourced, and continually surprising.” —The Boston Globe
 
“Audacious. . . . Like the best college courses: challenging but rewarding.” —USA Today
 
 “Challenging and important. . . . This intellectual history is intoxicating—thanks to Gleick’s clear mind, magpie-styled research and explanatory verve.” —The Plain Dealer
 
“Gleick’s skill as an explicator of counterintuitive concepts makes the chapters on logic . . . brim with tension.” —The Oregonian
 
“The Information puts our modern ‘information revolution’ in context, helping us appreciate the many information revolutions that preceded and enable it. The internet certainly has changed things, but Gleick shows that it has changed only what has already changed many times before. . . . His enthusiam is contagious.” —New Scientist
 
“Impressively, reassuringly, Gleick’s substantial, dense book comes as close as anything of late to satiating [the] twin demand for knowledge and clarity.” —The Irish Times
 
 “This is a work of rare penetration, a true history of ideas whose witty and determined treatment of its material brings clarity to a complex subject.” —The Daily Telegraph (London)
 
“The page-turner you never knew you desperately wanted to read.” —The Stranger
 
“To grasp what information truly means—to explain why it is shaping up as a unifying principle of science—Gleick has to embrace linguistics, logic, telecommunications, codes, computing, mathematics, philosophy, cosmology, quantum theory and genetics. . . . There are few writers who could accomplish this with such panache and authority. Gleick, whose 1987 work Chaos helped to kickstart the era of modern popular science, is one.” —The Observer (London)
 
“Enlightening. . . . Engagingly assembled.” —Nature
 
“ Mesmerizing. . . . As a celebration of human ingenuity, The Information is a deeply hopeful book.” —Nicholas Carr, The Daily Beast
 
“An amazing erudite and yet highly readable account of why and how information plays such a central role in all our lives, Gleick’s The Information is amongst the most profound books written about technology over the last few years.” —TechCrunch TV
 
“The web Gleick has woven is a rare one, a whole that envelops and exceeds its many parts, which certainly suits his topic. His contribution—too easily underrated in a work that synthesizes the ideas of others—lies in linking fields of science that aren’t connected in a formal sense. By the close of the book you cannot think of information as you might have before.” —Tim Wu, Slate
 
“[Gleick] is wrestling with truly profound material, and so will the reader. This is not a book you will race through on a single plane trip. It is a slow, satisfying meal.” —David Shenk, Columbia Journalism Review
 
“Gleick connects the dots that connect information to us, and there are many dots. . . . Here in one volume is the great story of the most important element at work in the world, and its story is well told. I had forgotten what a fantastic stylist Gleick is. It’s a joy to read him talking about anything.” —Kevin Kelly, The Technium
 
“Packed with the rich history of human thought and communication through the ages.” —PopMatters

JAMES GLEICK is our leading chronicler of science and technology, and the author of Chaos and Genius, both nominated for the National Book Award, and Isaac Newton, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. His books have been translated into thirty languages.

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