A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

We moved out of that [post-historic era] a long time ago. History after all is a fiction, an invention of literacy. As we moved into the electric circuit period, we moved out of that form of organizing knowledge. History is a rear view method of ordering life and knowledge and it consists in adapting a position from which to examine the past. Once you move into a very fast-moving world in which you play a total field, you can’t have history.
“MIT-SSSR” (1966), p 6
Year: 1966
↪ Also at #2689
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan