The Book History Reader

Following on from the widely successful first volume, this second edition has been updated and expanded to create an essential collection of writings examining different aspects of the history of books and print culture.
Arranged in thematic sections, bringing together a wide range of contributors, and featuring introductions to each section, this new edition:

• contains more extracts covering issues of gender, material culture and bibliographical matters
• has a brand new section on the future of the book in the electronic age
• examines different aspects of book history including: the development of the book, spoken words to written texts, the commodifcation of books, and the power and profile of readers.

This pioneering book is a vital resource for all those involved in publishing studies, library studies, book history and also those studying English literature, cultural studies, sociology and history.

Preface  Acknowledgements  1 David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery  Introduction  PART ONE What is book history? editors’ introduction  2 Robert Darnton what is the history of books?  3 Fredson Bowers Bibliography, Pure Bibliography and Literary Studies  4 D. F. McKenzie the book as an expressive form  5 Thomas R. Adams and Nicolas Barker A new mdel for the study of the book  6 Jerome McGann the socialization of texts  7 Harold Love Early modern print culture: assessing the models  8 Roger Chartier Labourers and Voyagers: from the text to the reader   9 Pierre Bourdieu the field of cultural production   PART TWO The impact of print editors’ introduction   10 Scott B. Noegel Text, Script, and Media: New Observations on Scribal Activity in the Ancient Near East  11 Walter Ong orality and literacy: writing restructures consciousness  12 Marcel Thomas Manuscript  13 Roger Chartier the practical impact of writing  14 Jan-Dirk Müller the body of the book: the media transition from manuscript to print  15 C.A. Bayly The Indian ecumene: an indigenous public sphere  16 D. F.  McKenzie the sociology of a text: orality, literacy and print in early new zealand  17 Elizabeth Eisenstein defining the initial shift: some features of print culture  18 Adrian Johns the book of nature and the nature of the book  PART THREE Texts and authors  editors’ introduction  19 Roland Barthes the death of the author  20 Michel Foucault what is an author?  21 Paula McDowell Oral Religio-Political Activism and Textual Production  22 Mark Rose literary property determined  23 John Brewer authors, publishers and the making of literary culture  24 Leah Price Cultures of the Commonplace  25 Jane Tompkins masterpiece theater: the politics of hawthorne’s literary reputation  26 John Sutherland the victorian novelists: who were they?  27 Robert L. Patten When is a book not a book?  28 James L.W. West III the magazine market  29 Jayne Marek Toward International Cooperation: The Literary Editing of H.D. and Bryher  PART FOUR Texts and readers  editors’ introduction  30 Wolfgang Iser interaction between text and reader  31 E. Jennifer Monaghan literacy instruction and gender in colonial new england  32 Kate Flint reading practices  33 Jonathan Rose rereading the english common reader: a preface to a history of audiences  34 Richard Altick the english common reader: from caxton to the eighteenth century  35 Stanley Fish interpreting the variorum  36 Elizabeth McHenry Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies  37 Janice Radway a feeling for books: the book-of-the-month club, literary taste and middle-class desire  PART FIVE The future of the book  Editors’ Introduction  38 Mark Poster The Digital Subject and Cultural Theory  39 Paul Duguid Material matters: the Past and futurology of the Book  40 Geoffrey Nunberg Farewell to the Information Age  Bibliography  Index

David Finkelstein is Research Professor of Media and Print Culture at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. He is author of The House of Blackwood: Author–Publisher Relations in the Victorian Era and co-author (with Alistair McCleery) of An Introduction to Book History. Alistair McCleery is Professor of Literature and Culture at Napier University, Edinburgh, and Director of the Scottish Centre for the Book. He is co-editor of The Bibliotheck.