Meggs' History of Graphic Design

This book is a great comprehensive history of graphic communication from the cave paintings till today. I'm using it as textbook for one of my classes in college and it is wonderful. It is also beautifully designed.

The binding on the book was broken, and the outer binding was ripped. The white book was dingy and stained, and the pages were covered in highlighter. The book was so badly damaged that the pages were hanging on in small sections. After one month of carefully trying to get this book to last the semester, the pages are literally falling out in chunks. I have to keep the book on a flat surface at all times and pray that more pages don't come out each time I turn the page. This is literally the worst book I have ever rented, and I am not sure how they can charge a customer for such a mangled, disintegrating product. Maybe I was unlucky and just got a really bad copy, but I don't know how this thing is going to survive the return shipping.

This book is beautifully laid out and the writing make me want to keep reading. The book also goes into explicit detail on how visual evolution was, and still is, so profoundly affected by world economics, war and revolution.

I received this book quickly and in new condition. So far this book has been a really interesting read. The information is presented in a way that makes the history a bit more colorful. The photo examples are abundant and even their captions enhance the experience.

This text is a great improvement from the fourth edition. This is a must have for anyone studying or practicing graphic design, however my copy arrived with some slight damage, bumped on the spine but hidden by the book jacket. Not sure if this is why the price was dramatically different from purchasing at my local bookstore. Was fine with the damage as it did not effect the legibility or quality of the actual content and helped us save $20 from the cover price.

Very dry text, not engaging at all. Not organized well, jumping in time all over the place. The vocabulary used in the book is terrible. Like the author tried to use as many "big words" as possible to make it sound as "smart" as possible. Well, he missed. Big time!
If you are bothered by unnecessarily verbose sesquipedalian loquaciousness (yes, exactly!) - this book is not for you!
Not a good book. I feel sorry for anybody that has to read it.

Get something else if you have a choice!