On the Mark
From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Aug 11, 2026
- Page Count
- 352 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9781541606494
Price
$32.00Price
$42.00 CADFormat
Format:
- Hardcover $32.00 $42.00 CAD
- ebook $17.99 $22.99 CAD
Preorder from Retailers:
You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe, but would you recognize a percontation point? How about a hypodiastole? In this irreverent and delightfully intellectual book, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind.
The first punctuation was lines and notches pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them. From the papyruses of the ancient world to our sprawling internet ecosystem, one thing has remained constant: Punctuation is powerful. These tiny marks can move markets, shift elections, topple political systems, and decide the fate of a precious human life on death row.
Weaving together anthropology, the history of writing, the philosophy of language, psychology, literature, and more, On the Mark masterfully proves that punctuation is at the heart of human communication.
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“An absolute delight! Rich, wise, and elegantly told. This is a treasure chest of pleasingly obscure information. There is so much more to the written word than the letters of the alphabet.”Dennis Duncan, author of Index, A History of the
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“This wonderful history of punctuation is also a history of the world. In Florence Hazrat's hands, every story has a point, and every point a story.”Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type
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“On the Mark is dizzying, compendious, and illuminating—a timely and rewarding quest through the past, present, and future of punctuation.”Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters
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“So. Good. So. Sharp. So. Clear. You. Need. This. Book. Period.”Lucy Mangan, author of Bookish
