Leonard Shlain. The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. Now available in paperback: New York: Penguin, 1999. Pp. vii , 464, includes 33 b/w figures and a 12 page supplement, $14.95. ISBN 0-14 01-9601-3.

Violence among humans is an age-old problem, often thought to have been present from the beginnings of human experience. Yet, periods of peace and calm have sometimes prevailed throughout history, and even as far back as prehistory. What could account for this waxing and waning between conflict and peace? What elements of human experience itself contributed to the ebb and flow of violence throughout all history and prehistory? What, indeed?

In his nationally-acclaimed best seller, Leonard Shlain sets forth the thesis that, with the advent of alphabet literacy, and in particular linear alphabet literacy, "the human brain itself became reconfigured for all those who learned the skill of writing." Realizing that, from the earliest of times in Western culture, the image of the Goddess and feminine values prevailed primarily in preliterate societies, and that "patriarchy and misogyny" seemed to become the norm with the advent of literacy, Shlain, who by profession is a brain surgeon, speculated that the ebb and flow of violence throughout history and prehistory was somehow linked to the reconfiguration of the brain following the advent of linear alphabet literacy. To test his thesis, he began with the earliest known facts about the evolution of the human brain, then traced those facts down through all ages, to the present.

He demonstrates this by taking the reader on a breathtaking tour that begins with hunter-gatherer societies, proceeds to a consideration of the earliest forms of writing, follows with documentaries on both the Hebrews and the Greeks, and then continues chronologically through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and on into our modern age. Along the way, he documents how - seemingly inevitably with the advent of literacy - wars, witch hunts, and ethnic cleansings followed. He attributes this historical ebb and flow between peace and violence to a parallel ebb and flow between right brain (feminine, imagistic) dominance (when literacy is eclipsed), and left brain (masculine, linear) dominance (when literacy is in the ascendant). Although his emphasis throughout is on Western culture, he provides a number of chapters that contrast and compare events in Eastern cultures.

Shlain is no pessimist, whether considering cultures Western or Eastern. Indeed, he concludes his work on a hopeful note, as he cites our present age as one tending toward balance. Given the advent of photography in the late nineteenth century, and a multitude of new communication modalities that have accompanied the technological innovations of television and computers in the last half of this century, Shlain suggests that the "iconic symbol" is with us once again: and that events are now progressing at breakneck speed into a new age, where the two hemispheres of the human brain may refreshingly find a remarkable balance never before realized.

What we have here is provocative thinking and inspiring reading. Shlain’s writing is not only accessible; it is also persuasive, so much so that his theory has provoked a number of heated discussions among journalists, philosophers, historians, psychologists, and many others who have heard or read about it. Although he admits he cannot "prove" his thesis, he documents it so thoroughly that ignoring it is no longer possible. Indeed, with The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Shlain provides a theory of violence that is highly plausible and, in doing so, he turns many of Western society’s most cherished assumptions inside out.

Lois J. Parker
Counseling and Testing Center UNR