It's been said that without Harold A. Innis there could have been no Marshall McLuhan. Empire and Communications is one of Innis's most important contributions to the debate about how media influenced the development of consciousness and societies. In this foundational work, he traces humanity's movement from the oral tradition of preliterate cultures to the electronic media of recent times. Along the way, he presents his own influential concepts of oral communication, time and space bias, and monopolies of knowledge. With a new introduction by Alexander John Watson, author of Marginal Man:...

Harold A. Innis helped to found the field of Canadian economic history. He is best known for the "staples thesis" which dominated the discourse of Canadian economic history for decades.

This volume collects Innis' published and unpublished essays on economic history, from 1929 to 1952, thereby charting the development of the arguments and ideas found in his books The Fur Trade in Canada and The Cod Fisheries. These essays capture Innis' ever evolving views on the practices and uses of economic history as well as Canadian economic history. The new introduction written...

Political Economy in the Modern State is Harold Innis's transitional and, in some respects, his most transformative book. Its main themes include the problem of power and peace, the ascent of specialization and mechanized forms of knowledge, and the crisis facing democracy and civilization.

Political Economy in the Modern State is Harold Innis's transitional and, in some respects, his most transformative book. Its main themes include the problem of power and peace, the ascent of specialization and mechanized forms of knowledge, and the crisis facing democracy and civilization.