The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain: Volume 6, 1830-1914

Description

The years 1830-1914 witnessed a revolution in the manufacture and use of books as great as that in the fifteenth century. Using new technology in printing, paper-making and binding, publishers worked with authors and illustrators to meet ever-growing and more varied demands from a population seeking books at all price levels. The essays by leading book historians in this volume show how books became cheap, how publishers used the magazine and newspaper markets to extend their influence, and how book ownership became universal for the first time. The fullest account ever published of the nineteenth-century revolution in printing, publishing and bookselling, this volume brings The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain up to a point when the world of books took on a recognisably modern form.

David McKitterick is Fellow and Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Historical Bibliography in the University of Cambridge.

'The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain is one of the great scholarly enterprises of our time ... Far from being a series of good essays on interesting topics, taken as a whole this book is not merely the best history of the book in nineteenth-century Britain which we have. It is, in the present state of our knowledge, just about the best that could be written.' John Feather, The Rare Books Newsletter '... this book is an indispensable acquisition for any general or humanities library ...' Karen Attar, University of London 'It is impossible to do this splendid and rich volume justice in a review article. Twenty essays cover an immense range of topics, suggest links between one another, provide scrupulous detail and larger frameworks. Twenty-four contributors explore the nineteenth-century revolution in printing, publishing and book-selling, in chapters covering aspects as diverse as 'The illustration revolution', 'The serial revolution', 'Copyright', 'Distribution', 'Reading', 'Mass markets' ... The volume's scope is immense and ambitious.' Annika Bautz, Journal of Theory and Criticism