Code: From Information Theory to French Theory

Bernard Geoghegan’s Code presents a strong history of how the humanities of the twentieth century worked in close connection with communication and information sciences. As Geoghegan early on argues, while “war” has served as a core narrative thread for much of media historical, archaeological, and theoretical discussions, there is another way to structure the historical periodization of information, management, and indeed code across the twentieth century. Partly, one can read Geoghegan’s book as a take on the Cold War period of institutional practices that come to play a role as a financial and material infrastructure of language, kinship, and meaning—key investments of the humanities. But there are also other versions of, for example, (settler) colonial discourses that have branded the North American context especially (but not exclusively). Geoghegan refers to Jennifer Light’s take on cybernetics and welfare policy, but in this book he expands to a rich and insightful analysis...