- 364 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
The Popular Book: A History of America’s Literary Taste by James D. Hart traces how ordinary readers across four centuries have shaped, and been shaped by, what they read. Beginning with the utilitarian choices of the Mayflower settlers, Hart follows the growth of a reading public that consumed everything from psalm books, almanacs, and captivity narratives to sentimental novels, Gothic romances, and practical manuals. He reveals how America’s literary marketplace grew in tandem with shifting social, religious, and political contexts—from Puritan piety and Enlightenment rationalism to Revolutionary pamphleteering, the sentimentalism of the early republic, and the rise of mass-market fiction. Through detailed case studies of best sellers like Pilgrim’s Progress, Common Sense, Charlotte Temple, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book demonstrates how popular texts mirrored and molded cultural values.
Far from a simple chronology of American letters, Hart’s work situates literature within the everyday life of communities, households, and circulating libraries, emphasizing how reading habits illuminate broader cultural transformations. By examining probate inventories, publishers’ invoices, and anecdotal evidence, he uncovers the texture of ordinary literary experience and challenges traditional hierarchies of taste. The Popular Book ultimately presents a vivid cultural history of how Americans—from colonial settlers to nineteenth-century consumers—defined themselves through what they chose to read, offering essential insights into the dynamics of literary popularity and the evolving relationship between print and public.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.
Far from a simple chronology of American letters, Hart’s work situates literature within the everyday life of communities, households, and circulating libraries, emphasizing how reading habits illuminate broader cultural transformations. By examining probate inventories, publishers’ invoices, and anecdotal evidence, he uncovers the texture of ordinary literary experience and challenges traditional hierarchies of taste. The Popular Book ultimately presents a vivid cultural history of how Americans—from colonial settlers to nineteenth-century consumers—defined themselves through what they chose to read, offering essential insights into the dynamics of literary popularity and the evolving relationship between print and public.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access The Popular Book by James D. Hart in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & North American Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Chapter 1 The Practice of Piety
- Chapter 2 The Age of Reason
- Chapter 3 Common Sense
- Chapter 4 The Power of Sympathy
- Chapter 5 The Ancient Regime
- Chapter 6 Home Influence
- Chapter 7 The Gates Ajar
- Chapter 8 The Spirit of Poetry
- Chapter 9 Roughing It
- Chapter 10 The Gilded Age
- Chapter 11 When Knighthood Was in Flower
- Chapter 12 Their Yesterdays
- Chapter 13 The Plastic Age
- Chapter 14 Little Man, What Now?
- Postscript How to Win Friends and Influence People
- Bibliographical Checklist
- Chronological Index of Books Discussed in the Text
- Index