This book uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity--from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today.

Handwriting is history -- The strangely familiar very far past -- The problem with very beautiful writing -- The long tail of Greece and Rome -- Human Xerox machines -- The politics of script -- Handwriting as distinction -- Righteous, manly hands -- A devilish contrivance -- Long descenders -- Questioned documents -- Digital handwriting -- The continual revival of fancy letters -- The science of handwriting -- Our John Hancocks.