[... ] Nadin asserts that each kind of experience extracts is own logic from that experience. The causal relation between a sign system and the structure of practical experience is a two-way street: literacy entails certain changes in standards and expectations, but the latter also facilitate the advent of literacy. The new civilization of illiteracy is defined as one "in which literate characteristics no longer constitute the underlying structure of effective pragmatic experience. It is characterized by globality, the coexistence of diverse partial literacies, a random interconnectedness of diverse activities, open-ended goals and motivations, and a general shift from the exceptional to the average. The book, an integral organizing principle, is replaced by texts providing information and entertainment in the particular context chosen by the reader/viewer/listener. Nadin sees the USA as the leader of the civilization of illiteracy, as American democracy offers the broadest possible latitude to individual initiative by an average human, as well as an unrivaled diversity of subcultures and religions. The disintegration of the Soviet Union is seen as a case of the demise of a civilization based on traditional literacy. Nadin shows how the Soviet system, in pursuing the ideals of literate civilization (where did more people read serious literature, attend more concerts of classical music, visit more museums than in the former Soviet Union?) failed to respond to the challenge of expectations once they transcended its norms. Nadin's study is a heroic effort to grasp the entire reality of our age. Few readers will be able to respond to all of Nadin's observations. But all readers will find many pertinent observations. This is unquestionably an important book.