Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western World [Hardcover]

This book comes at the perfect moment... as we rediscover the importance in early reading of "cracking the alphabetic code." The story of how that code came into being is a fascinating one, and Man is the ideal writer to tell it. His scholarship seems boundless... he also has a journalist's ear for a story, beguiling us with innumerable asides. Best of all though is the story that inspired the book: the discovery in the early 1990's, of some signs cut into a rockface beyond Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It is straight out of Indiana Jones... Man's own theory... is a tour de force, linking the creation of the alphabet to the emergence in Sinai of that other Alpha and Omega - the God of Abraham and Moses, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam... This book is an opportunity to rediscover those 26 letters... and to marvel at a system of communication that for 4,000 years... has allowed readers freedom of access across time and space.

'absorbing tale.. many surprises on the way' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Discovering where these 26 or so letters came from and how they have evolved over the years is far more than just an academic exercise. This is a thrilling story of adventure, passion and intrigue.

Text that is crisp, taut, and as clear as a bell. ...a fascinating story with many a beguiling subplot along the way.

John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in Mongolia. His most recent books are Gobi: Tracking the Desert and the Atlas of the Year 1000. He also wrote The Waorani: Jungle Nomads of Ecuador and The Atlas of D-Day. He devised and presented the BBC Rad io 4 series Survivors (1994-7).