Harold Innis (1894 - 1952) was a brilliant original thinker and professor of political economy at the University of Toronto. He is known for his seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. Innis's great mind exposed the role of media in shaping the culture and the development of civilizations. For instance, he argued that a balance between oral and written forms of communication enabled the flourishing of the Greek civilization in the 5th century BC. He was extremely concerned about the destructive effect of powerful, advertising-driven media, preoccupied with "present-mindedness" and the "continuous, systematic, ruthless destruction of elements of permanence essential to cultural activity." This book features three of his essays: "The Strategy of Culture," "The Military Implications of the American Constitution" and "Roman Law and the British Empire."