A History of the Book in America - by David Paul Nord & Joan Shelley Rubin & Michael Schudson & David D Hall (Paperback)

About the Book

History of the Book in America: Volume 5: The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America

Book Synopsis

The fifth volume of A History of the Book in America addresses the economic, social, and cultural shifts affecting print culture from World War II to the present. During this period factors such as the expansion of government, the growth of higher education, the climate of the Cold War, globalization, and the development of multimedia and digital technologies influenced the patterns of consolidation and diversification established earlier.

The thirty-three contributors to the volume explore the evolution of the publishing industry and the business of bookselling. The histories of government publishing, law and policy, the periodical press, literary criticism, and reading -- in settings such as schools, libraries, book clubs, self-help programs, and collectors' societies -- receive imaginative scrutiny as well. The Enduring Book demonstrates that the corporate consolidations of the last half-century have left space for the independent publisher, that multiplicity continues to define American print culture, and that even in the digital age, the book endures.

Contributors:
David Abrahamson, Northwestern University
James L. Baughman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kenneth Cmiel (d. 2006)
James Danky, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Robert DeMaria Jr., Vassar College
Donald A. Downs, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Robert W. Frase (d. 2003)
Paul C. Gutjahr, Indiana University
David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School
John B. Hench, American Antiquarian Society
Patrick Henry, New York City College of Technology
Dan Lacy (d. 2001)
Marshall Leaffer, Indiana University
Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell University
Elizabeth Long, Rice University
Beth Luey, Arizona State University
Tom McCarthy, Beirut, Lebanon
Laura J. Miller, Brandeis University
Priscilla Coit Murphy, Chapel Hill, N.C.
David Paul Nord, Indiana University
Carol Polsgrove, Indiana University
David Reinking, Clemson University
Jane Rhodes, Macalester College
John V. Richardson Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
Joan Shelley Rubin, University of Rochester
Michael Schudson, University of California, San Diego, and Columbia University
Linda Scott, University of Oxford
Dan Simon, Seven Stories Press
Ilan Stavans, Amherst College
Harvey M. Teres, Syracuse University
John B. Thompson, University of Cambridge
Trysh Travis, University of Florida
Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University

Review Quotes

"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

"A very readable and insightful account. . . . This volume and the series will be standards for a long time. . . . Essential." -- CHOICE

"Certain to become required reading for anyone interested in books, book publishing, and/or print culture in postwar America. . . . This one's definitely a keeper." -- Publishing Research Quarterly

"Magisterial scholarship, compelling writing, and extraordinary range....The Enduring Book functions successfully on a number of intellectual scales. Scholars interested in American print culture will find this book invaluable." -- The Journal of American History

"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

About the Author

David Paul Nord is professor of journalism and adjunct professor of history at Indiana University. He is author of Faith in Reading: Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America. Joan Shelley Rubin is professor of history at the University of Rochester. She is author of Songs of Ourselves: The Uses of Poetry in America. Michael Schudson is professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego and at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. He is author of Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press.