Simon Franklin, Writing, society and culture in early Rus, c. 950–1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xv, 325. Hb $65.00 US; and Sean Hawkins, Writing and colonialism in Northern Ghana: The encounter between the LoDagaa and ‘the world on paper’. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. Pp. xv, 468. Hb $80.00 Can.

Extract

Two remarkable books arrived on my desk from quite different sources early in 2003. My purpose in reviewing them is twofold: first, to convince the general reader that the study of culture can no longer ignore the transformative role of written documents in social and mental life in either antique cultures or in contemporary modernizing ones; and second, to introduce the authors of these fine books to each other.