John Man's Alpha Beta covers the idea of the alphabet-- a written form of language through which we communicate thoughts, ideas, and concepts. I found it very interesting to read the way Man approached the alphabet; not as simply a tool to learn in school, but as a growing and developing entity.
The English alphabet's development alone is one of change after change.
Man's critique of Eric Havelock's view of the Greek alphabet was presented from a point of view that I never had taken myself. The Greek alphabet is the base alphabet of my literacy, but the Greeks merely adapted and developed the alphabet, although their ability to do so is still astonishing in itself. Alpha Beta definitely provides a different view of how to think about the alphabet, and thereon literacy itself.
