Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Click to enlarge

Print Price: $47.50

Format:
Hardback
464 pp.
168 illustrations, 189 mm x 246 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198702986

Publication date:
June 2020

Imprint: OUP UK

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book

Edited by James Raven

Series : Oxford Illustrated Histories

In 14 original essays, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present. Leading international scholars offer an original and richly illustrated narrative that is global in scope.

The history of the book is the history of millions of written, printed, and illustrated texts, their manufacture, distribution, and reception. Here are different types of production, from clay tablets to scrolls, from inscribed codices to printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, from written parchment to digital texts. The history of the book is a history of different methods of circulation and dissemination, all dependent on innovations in transport, from coastal and transoceanic shipping to roads, trains, planes and the internet. It is a history of different modes of reading and reception, from learned debate and individual study to public instruction and entertainment. It is a history of manufacture, craftsmanship, dissemination, reading and debate.

Yet the history of books is not simply a question of material form, nor indeed of the history of reading and reception. The larger question is of the effect of textual production, distribution and reception - of how books themselves made history. To this end, each chapter of this volume, succinctly bounded by period and geography, offers incisive and stimulating insights into the relationship between books and the story of their times.

Readership : A general readership interested in the history of books, reading, communication and media.

1. James Raven: Introduction
2. Eleanor Robson: The Ancient World
3. Barbara Crostini: Byzantium
4. Cynthia Brokaw: Medieval and Early Modern East Asia
5. David Rundle: Western Europe, c. 450-c.1450
6. James Raven and Goran Proot: Renaissance and Reformation
7. Ann Blair: Managing Information
8. Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom: The Islamic World
9. Jeffrey Freedman: Enlightenment and Revolution
10. Graham Shaw: South Asia
11. Marie-Françoise Cachin: Industrialization
12. Christopher A. Reed and M. William Steele: Modern China, Japan and Korea
13. Eva Hemmungs Wirtén: Globalization
14. Jeffrey T. Schnapp: Books Transformed
Glossary
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

James Raven is Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex and a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Formerly he was Reader in Social and Cultural History, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College. He is the author, editor and co-editor of numerous books in early modern and modern British, European and colonial history, including Judging New Wealth (1992); The Practice and Representation of Reading (1996); The English Novel 1770-1829 (2000); Free Print and Non-Commercial Publishing (2000); London Booksellers and American Customers (2002); Lost Libraries (2004); The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade (2007); Books between Europe and the Americas (2011); Publishing Business (2014) and Bookscape: Geographies of Printing and Publishing in London before 1800 (2014).

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation - Edited by Peter Marshall
The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic - Edited by Owen Davies
The Oxford Illustrated History of Science - Edited by Iwan Rhys Morus

Special Features

Original essays by leading scholars offering a significant new interpretation of the global history of the book since ancient times.
Richly illustrated to offer a unique history that allows readers to gain visual appreciation of the diverse forms of books and their history over the centuries and around the world.
A complete history of the book in one volume providing comparative perspectives and important themes that cross centuries and continents.