W H A T
M A K E S
L I V E S
Self-published in 1940 by Porter Sargent (1872-1951)
This edition has a dual purpose:
to revive a classic dissent,
to try a new way to publish.
WORLD WAR 2 having begun in 1939,
Porter Sargent watches events unreel that rouse a feeling of
déjà vu. Again mass media thrill with
stories of heroes and villains, good nations and bad, strife against
evil, moral war. Trusted sources report episodes of rape, of fiendish
cruelty. Leaders condemn abuses of human rights then appeal to ideals
and duty.
Similar events changed the author's view of the quarrel in Europe the
first time round in 1915. With most of his peace-loving compatriots,
he yielded before a secret weapon to manipulate people's opinion -- a
blend of propaganda and censorship, "public relations." Later, calm
inquiry laid bare many war stories as ruses or lies. But the deceits
had done their job: they tricked and misled the USA into war. Now
Citizen Sargent shouts to warn his countrymen against false alarms.
His dismay prompts us to reflect on our own times, our own rearing.
THIS REVIVAL employs hypertext (the word first appeared in
1965). Hypertext associates units of data -- relates them by means
of hyperlinks. Three appear above: introduction,
table of contents, and index. They connect this
overview with other parts of the publication. The method allows an
80,000-word, 200-page book (Sargent's memoir), with links to text both
inside and beyond itself, to fit into less than half a volume of a
diskette. (This mass-storage medium -- 3.5 by 3.7 inches, common,
cheap, magnetic, two-sided, high density -- has room for 1.44 million
characters.) Various browsers can render it legible, even those
running on diverse computers under different operating systems.
The hypertext concept gave rise in 1991 to the World Wide Web.
Initials HT stand for HyperText in the
abbreviations HTML (markup language) and HTTP (transfer protocol).
You are now reading what your browser makes of a source file that
contains HTML tags. The tags tell the browser how to format text as
well as how to link it. To lift the hood and see these hidden tags,
go to your browser's View menu and select Source.
The structure of Sargent's work lends itself to HTML. He breaks
chapters into sections seldom longer than 400 words (one printed
page). Each of his 331 sections has a link in the table of contents, each of his 202 pages has a
link in the index's page finder.
Read a book report for this (or
another) work.
Look up peoples' names in a
cumulative index
by Daniel Brandt (books and clippings).
Overview
and hypertext markup copyright © 2000 and 2002 Dale Wharton