Emergence and Empire

Innis, Complexity and the Trajectory of History

Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013

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In Emergence and Empire, John Bonnett offers a fresh take on Innis' work by demonstrating that Harold Innis' purpose was to understand the impact of self-organizing, emergent change on economies and societies. The work presents an extended portrait of the intellectual context that shaped Innis' thinking, showing that his economic histories and communication writings were informed by concepts as diverse as information, Kantian Idealism and business cycle theory. Innis emerges in Bonnett's treatment as a bold, original and prescient thinker.