The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making - Hardcover

Johns, Adrian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226401219 ISBN 13: 9780226401218

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1998

Synopsis

In The Nature of the Book, a tour de force of cultural history, Adrian Johns constructs an entirely original and vivid picture of print culture and its many arenas—commercial, intellectual, political, and individual.

"A compelling exposition of how authors, printers, booksellers and readers competed for power over the printed page. . . . The richness of Mr. Johns's book lies in the splendid detail he has collected to describe the world of books in the first two centuries after the printing press arrived in England."—Alberto Manguel, Washington Times

"[A] mammoth and stimulating account of the place of print in the history of knowledge. . . . Johns has written a tremendously learned primer."—D. Graham Burnett, New Republic

"A detailed, engrossing, and genuinely eye-opening account of the formative stages of the print culture. . . . This is scholarship at its best."—Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

"The most lucid and persuasive account of the new kind of knowledge produced by print. . . . A work to rank alongside McLuhan."—John Sutherland, The Independent

"Entertainingly written. . . . The most comprehensive account available . . . well documented and engaging."—Ian Maclean, Times Literary Supplement

About this title

About the Author

Adrian Johns is the Allan Grant Maclear Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age.

Reviews

By and large, our trust in the veracity of books goes unquestioned, a tacit assumption made possible by virtue of the concerted efforts of writers and printers at the dawn of print culture. Believing that attaining an understanding of this crucial legacy, and the complex nexus of knowledge and print, is key to appreciating many of the subtleties of modern civilization, Johns tracks the evolution of the book by focusing on the book trade as practiced in one hugely influential locale, London. In his exacting and often pioneering narrative, Johns chronicles the complexity of the craft, politics, and economies of printing and book publishing, with profiles of seminal individuals, discussion of the physiology of reading, and penetrating scrutiny of the rather shaky foundations of scientific, philosophical, and historical discourse. There has been a noticeable surge in new research into the history of reading, a line of inquiry inspired, no doubt, by the spread of electronic technology, a communications frontier begging for exactly the sort of rigorous standards that were applied to print four centuries ago. Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226401219
• ISBN 13: 9780226401218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 776