{"product_id":"on-the-mark-9781541606494","title":"On the Mark","description":"\u003cb\u003eA lively history of punctuation, from ancient times to the age of the emoji.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Rich, wise, and elegantly told. This is a treasure chest of pleasingly obscure information.” —Dennis Duncan, author of \u003ci\u003eIndex, A History of the\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe, but would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In this irreverent and delightfully intellectual book, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them. From the papyruses of the ancient world to our sprawling internet ecosystem, one thing has remained constant: Punctuation is powerful. These tiny marks can move markets, shift elections, topple political systems, and decide the fate of a precious human life on death row.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Weaving together anthropology, the history of writing, the philosophy of language, psychology, literature, and more, \u003ci\u003eOn the Mark\u003c\/i\u003e masterfully proves that punctuation is at the heart of human communication.","brand":"Basic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46765948207282,"sku":"9781541606494","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0536\/7418\/0786\/files\/O_e59cd7d2-422d-4a9b-91d1-ad2a6f734cc6.jpg?v=1779250312","url":"https:\/\/shop.hachettebookgroup.com\/products\/on-the-mark-9781541606494","provider":"Hachette Book Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}