Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" arenow part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and ourassumptions about how and what we communicate.

with a new introduction by Lewis H. Lapham This reissue of Understanding Media marksthe thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan's classic expose on the state of the thenemerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium isthe message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge oursensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.There has been a notableresurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuingconjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance ofmagazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many ofwhich were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a newintroduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluatesMcLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes thathave occurred in the last part of this century.