Abstract

In Unthinking Modernity, Judith Stamps reinterprets the communications theory of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan as a Canadian variant of the critical theory associated with the early Frankfurt school. Stamps argues that Innis and McLuhan used their studies of media to develop a critique of the thoughts and habits that characterize the West. Like their European contemporaries, Innis and McLuhan worked toward a theory of how westerners have developed classifications through which they perceive the world. Moreover, Stamps shows that they used insights derived from their North American experience to add a new, media-based perspective to such a theory. Unthinking Modernity offers unique perspectives on the ways in which economics, politics, and media intertwine to create personal and social consciousness.