A History of the Book in America

“What the History of the Book series shows so clearly is that the world we know, the communities to which we already belong, are reified and reinforced by books. Such is the incredible and incredibly flexible power of this primitive technology. Behold the book: It is limited but perfect.” — Humanities magazine

“Provides superb expositions of current scholarship on the history of the book. . . . Places the handsome, often gold-stamped, book-product front and center in a larger print universe operating in many sites. . . . [A] wonderfully rich complexity.” — Journal of American History

“A model of scholarly publication and institutional cooperation. . . . A timely achievement and a great one. . . . Without university presses, we would still be waiting for HBA.” — Journal of Scholarly Publishing

“Admirable. . . . Bears reading for new approaches to understanding how print culture affected the lives of Americans in a myriad of social settings and occupations.” — Printing History

“Succeeds both as a reference work and as a status report on the field’s scholarship. . . . Relevant and lucidly written.” — Technology and Culture

“Generously illustrated, and numerous tables and graphs make statistically dense chapters accessible. . . . Recommend[ed] without hesitation.” — Resources for American Literary Study

“The depth found in the work edited by Casper, Groves, Nissenbaum, and Winship stands alone in currently available scholarship.” — American Reference Books Annual

“The Industrial Book is a stunning work of compilation and erudition. It succeeds in delineating the cultural, political, social, and economic history of the mid-nineteenth-century book while also capturing the intellectual vitality and innovation that characterizes this increasingly influential field of study.” — Joshua Brown, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

“The Industrial Book in America, 1840–1880, is an impressive achievement, offering both fresh interpretations and groundbreaking research on a host of issues related to publishing, authorship, and literacy in the nineteenth century. Comprehensive in scope and abundant in detail, it will become a standard reference for students and scholars interested in the development of a national print culture in the United States.” — Thomas Augst, New York University, author of The Clerk’s Tale: Young Men and Moral Life in Nineteenth-Century America