Awards
- Winner of American Society for 18th-Century Studies Louis Gotschalk Prize 1999
- Winner of American Society for 18th-Century Studies Louis Gotschalk Prize 1999.
- Winner of Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing: Book History Prize 1998
- Winner of Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing: Book History Prize 1998.
Overview
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
Full Product Details
Author: Adrian Johns (Norton)
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:
Width: 1.70cm
, Height: 0.50cm
, Length: 2.40cm
Weight: 1.474kg
ISBN: 9780226401218
ISBN 10: 0226401219
Pages: 776
Publication Date: 15 October 1998
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
A compelling exposition of how authors, printers, booksellers, and readers competed for power over the printed page. . . . The richness of 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 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 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 Entertainingly written. . . . The most comprehensive account available . . . well documented and engaging. --Ian Maclean Times Literary Supplement 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
A scholarly investigation of printing's early cultural history in England. In 1979 Elizabeth Eisenstein published a massively influential book entitled The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Books, she said, enabled a stable and fixed culture of learning that uniquely facilitated the rise of scientific knowledge-making. Now Johns (Sociology/Univ. of Calif., San Diego) aims to revise her findings in his own learned (if exaggeratedly contentious) study of books and publishing in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. In contrast to Eisenstein, he argues that a multiplicity of competing and idiosyncratic cultures of print emerged during that era and that the conditions of knowledge were far from uniform. While he concedes it to be true that printed books stabilized texts and led to a degree of fixity in available knowledge, Johns proposes that a variety of cultural contingencies undermined what in retrospect has seemed to be the objectivity of early modern scientific thought. Not least among these contingencies were the rampant and labyrinthine practices of book piracy, a circumstance that undermined the authority and authenticity of print. Johns also suggests that different printers and booksellers developed different models of accrediting and appraising the trustworthiness of books. Much is made of the lively rivalries among the various factions, and the fates of various scientific books and writers are explored in copious detail, including those of Sir Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, and others. It is Johns's overall strategy to emphasize the cultural and social factors that shaped the realm of the printed word, and in particular to underline the role that the mobile concept of trust (as opposed to verifiable fact) played in defining the culture of print that has come down to us. Relying on detailed knowledge of original texts and a magisterial view of the enormous secondary literature, Johns has written a fine-grained study with considerable force of argument. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this original study Johns examines the way in which books came into being in 17th-century England. He explores the relationship between authors, printers and stationers in a world which was still coming to terms with concepts such as copyright, intellectual property and the single version of a text. Focusing particularly on books about science, he sheds valuable light on the 'scientific revolution' made by Newton, Boyle and other members of the new Royal Society in showing how their ideas reached the marketplace. This is a highly learned work which makes a significant contribution to our understanding of early modern culture, written in a lively and accessible style which is sure to have wide appeal. (Kirkus UK)
Author Information
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.
