Overview

"This title is a study of the export of books from Britain to early-independent Spanish America, which considers all phases of production, distribution, reading and re-writing of British books in the region, and explores the role that these works played in the formation of national identities in the new countries. Analysing in particular the publishing house of Rudolph Ackermann, which dominated the export of British books in Spanish to the former colonies in the 1820s, it discusses the ways in which the printed form of these publications affected the knowledge conveyed by them. After a survey of the peculiar characteristics of print culture in early-independent Spanish America and the trends in the import of European books in the region, the author examines the operation of Ackermann's publishing enterprise. She shows how the collaborative nature of this enterprise, involving a number of Spanish American diplomats as sponsors and Spanish exiles as writers and translators, shaped the characteristics of its publications, and how the notion of ""useful knowledge"" conveyed by them was deployed in the service of both commercial and educational concerns. The hitherto unexplored mechanisms of book import, distribution, wholesale and retailing in Spanish America in the 1820s are also analysed, as is the way in which the significance of the knowledge transmitted by those books shifted in the course of their production and distribution. The author examines how the question-and answer form of Ackermann's textbooks constrained both publishers and writers and oriented their readers' relation with the texts. She then looks at the various ways in which foreign knowledge was appropriated in the construction of individual, social, national, and continental identities; this is done through the study of a number of individual reading experiences and through the analysis of the editions and adaptations of Ackermann's textbooks during the 19th century. Innovative in subject matter and methodological approaches, this book should be of interest both to book historians and to Latin American scholars, as well as to historians of education, historians of science, and scholars interested in processes of internationalisation, transmission, and appropriation of knowledge."

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9780754632788

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Reviews

' This book [...] will widen remarkably the horizons of British book historians.' Rare Books Newsletter 'RoldA!n Vera's monograph is a major contribution to bibliographical scholarship and intellectual history. Original and thought-provoking...' Bibliographical Society of America 'This detailed and well-prepared study draws on a wealth of documentary evidence to trace the important role played by British publishers [...] in the dissemination of knowledge in the emergent Spanish American republics... The authors is to be congratulated on a well-documented study of an important but neglected area of Latin American bibliography.' The Library 'This fascinating and well-written book, [...] will be of interest to scholars of the British book trade and historians of nineteenth-century Spanish America alike.' Journal of the Printing Historical Society '... the book is clearly written and thoroughly documented, and it would be well placed in graduate seminars. For those who are working in the field of Latin American print culture, RoldA!n Vera's study is essential reading.' Hispanic American Historical Review

' This book [...] will widen remarkably the horizons of British book historians.' Rare Books Newsletter 'Roldan Vera's monograph is a major contribution to bibliographical scholarship and intellectual history. Original and thought-provoking...' Bibliographical Society of America 'This detailed and well-prepared study draws on a wealth of documentary evidence to trace the important role played by British publishers [...] in the dissemination of knowledge in the emergent Spanish American republics... The authors is to be congratulated on a well-documented study of an important but neglected area of Latin American bibliography.' The Library 'This fascinating and well-written book, [...] will be of interest to scholars of the British book trade and historians of nineteenth-century Spanish America alike.' Journal of the Printing Historical Society '... the book is clearly written and thoroughly documented, and it would be well placed in graduate seminars. For those who are working in the field of Latin American print culture, Roldan Vera's study is essential reading.' Hispanic American Historical Review

Author Information

Eugenia Roldan Vera, Humboldt-Universitat Berlin, Germany

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