Documents that changed the way we live

About this book

Documents are milestones and markers of human activity, part of who and what we are. Our story can be told through the objects, profound and trivial, famous and forgotten, by which we remember and are remembered. Documents That Changed the Way We Live examines dozens of compelling stories that describe these documents: their creation, motivation, influence, importance, historical and social context, and provenance; and their connections to contemporary information objects, technologies, and trends. These documents include the following: "Exaltation of Innana," a Sumerian hymn composed c. 2300 BCE by the high priestess Enheduanna, likely the first known author...of anything; The "He has waged cruel war..." passage on slavery, deleted from the Declaration of Independence; The "We Can Do It!" poster everyone knows is Rosie the Riveter, calling women to work in the factories in WWII. Except it's not, and she isn't; Joseph McCarthy's "list" of Communists, which ruined lives and careers-even though it never existed; The poorly designed Palm Beach County "butterfly ballot," on which the 2000 U.S. presidential election may have hinged; And the less known stories behind the Zapruder film, Watergate tapes, Obama birth certificate, airplane black boxes, Thanksgiving, IQ tests, "The Star-Spangled Banner," why Americans spell the way they do, Nobel prizes, Wikipedia, and how you're cooking dinner tonight.