ALPHA BETA: HOW 26 LETTERS SHAPED THE WESTERN WORLD.John Man. New York: Wiley and Sons, 2001. Pp. 312. $24.95 cloth.

Extract

This volume is a fascinating, erudite, gripping, and well-researched work on a subject that many of us would expect to find dry, dull, and for academics only. John Man has succeeded, however, in taking and transforming the topic into a highly readable and very accessible book that reads like a whodunit from beginning to end. He traces the origins of the alphabet, from 4,000 years ago to modern times, taking us on captivating and exotic excursions along the way: how the Exodus might have come about; who the Phoenicians were and how they got their name; how Cyrillic came into being; how Times Roman has come to be one of the most popular and recognizable typefaces today.