We are taught to believe that literacy is a “Good Thing”. Without reading and writing, there would be no civilization. No culture, no science, no technology. No books, full stop.

That’s true, of course. But there is another side to the story. We rarely consider it, but reading and writing came at a cost. History, as they say, is written by the victors. 

 

What of those on the other side of the divide? What of literature’s victims? 

  

When writing comes to a pre-literate civilization, it doesn't spread poetry and philosophy. Nobody thinks its purpose is literature. Literacy exists to create bureaucratic records to control, tax, conscript and, very often, enslave. The light of knowledge casts a long, dark shadow. 

 

This is the story of the people who, through the centuries, were brought under the yoke of state control via literacy. And it’s the story of those who bravely resisted. Along the way we’ll meet wild-eyed Franciscan friars who believed teaching Aztecs to read and write would bring about the second coming of Jesus, learn how the Qin Empire faced the same problems as the European Union, and hear from the post-literate people of Zomia, who turned their back on books.

 

WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS shakes the snow globe of our world view, telling the story of those literally written out of history. Unique, counter-intuitive, and entertaining, it will make you question everything you thought you knew about the world.