The New Dark Ages

James Marriott’s argument that the decline of reading — driven first by television, then accelerated by smartphones — represents a civilisational inflection point comparable to the collapse of literacy after antiquity. Marriott wrote The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society, a hugely popular Substack post, before expanding it into this book. Ed West’s review (Doomscrolling Ourselves to Death) describes it as “entertaining, informative, often amusing and makes a coherent case in 50,000 or so words.”

Recommended by Ed West (who reviewed it extensively) and Patrick Collison.