A History of British Publishing

by Feather; John

• ISBN13: 9780415302258
• ISBN10: 0415302250
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This revised, restructured and thoroughly updated edition of a classic text covers six centuries of publishing in Britain, from before the invention of the printing press to the electronic era. At the beginning of the 21st century, the publishing industry is being transformed by new technologies. Over 500 years ago, book production was revolutionised by an earlier new technology - the printing press and moveable type. A whole new industry grew out of this invention, an industry in which books were mass-produced for the first time. By the end of the 15th century printed books had largely ousted manuscripts in the commercial book trade; their predominance as an information medium was not seriously challenged until after the turn of the twentieth century, and even then only at the margins. The printed book became one of the symbols of Western culture. In this book, John Feather considers not only the publishing industry itself, but also areas affecting and affected by it, from education, politics,technology and law, to religion, custom and class. He traces the history of the publishing of books in Britain, looking at how they were financed, produced and distributed. The key player in this complex process was always the publisher, although the person or firm which performed that function has undergone many changes of both name and substance since Caxton set up his press in Westminster Abbey. The successors of the small tradesman who produced books in early modern England are the great global corporations which dominate the media today. This book explains how that transformation has happened. In this radically reworked second edition, John Feather places Britain, and her industries, firmly in the global marketplace. With transatlantic competition and co-operation now standard, and with books marketed across the world via internet stores, Feather concludes by asking, how British is British publishing?

Author Biography

John Feather is Professor of Library and Information Studies at Loughborough University.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
A note on countries, dates and money	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
PART I The early modern book trade	7	(62)
Literacy, print and culture in early modern England	9	(14)
The development of the book trade	23	(9)
The book trade and the state	32	(19)
The market for books	51	(18)
PART II Publishing in the industrial age	69	(74)
The first publishers	71	(14)
The book trade and the industrial revolution	85	(12)
Publishing in a free trade economy	97	(11)
The diffusion of knowledge	108	(12)
The age of the novel	120	(12)
Authors and publishers	132	(11)
PART III The publishing industry in the twentieth century	143	(86)
The first of the mass media	145	(7)
The publishing industry	152	(20)
Paperback publishing	172	(9)
Publishing for the Empire	181	(13)
The trade in war and peace	194	(6)
New competitors	200	(11)
The second industrial revolution	211	(9)
British publishing in a global economy	220	(9)
A note on further reading	229	(2)
Bibliography	231	(23)
Index	254