University of North Carolina Press A History of the Book in America: v. 1-5 (History Book America)

Volume 1, The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World carries the interrelated stories of publishing, writing, and reading from the beginning of the colonial period in America up to 1790. Three major themes run through the volume: the persisting connections between the book trade in the Old World and the New, evidenced in modes of intellectual and cultural exchange and the dominance of imported, chiefly English books; the gradual emergence of a competitive book trade in which newspapers were the largest form of production; and the institution of a ""culture of the Word,"" organized around an essentially theological understanding of print, authorship, and reading, complemented by other frameworks of meaning that included the culture of republicanism Review "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"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""One of the great scholarly projects of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first centuries. . . .The "History" is a miracle of extensive and intensive scholarship, sustained over decades and across continents."-"The New England Quarterly"