A History of the Book in America

Volume 2: An Extensive Republic: Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, 1790-1840

Robert A. Gross, Mary Kelley, Robert A. Gross, Mary Kelley, David D. Hall

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781469621616
  9780807833391
• eBook ISBN:
  9780807895689
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Business History
• Index: History

Volume Two of A History of the Book in America documents the development of a distinctive culture of print in the new American republic.

Between 1790 and 1840 printing and publishing expanded, and literate publics provided a ready market for novels, almanacs, newspapers, tracts, and periodicals. Government, business, and reform drove the dissemination of print. Through laws and subsidies, state and federal authorities promoted an informed citizenry. Entrepreneurs responded to rising demand by investing in new technologies and altering the conduct of publishing. Voluntary societies launched libraries, lyceums, and schools, and relied on print to spread religion, redeem morals, and advance benevolent goals. Out of all this ferment emerged new and diverse communities of citizens linked together in a decentralized print culture where citizenship meant literacy and print meant power. Yet in a diverse and far-flung nation, regional differences persisted, and older forms of oral and handwritten communication offered alternatives to print. The early republic was a world of mixed media.

Contributors:
Elizabeth Barnes, College of William and Mary
Georgia B. Barnhill, American Antiquarian Society
John L. Brooke, The Ohio State University
Dona Brown, University of Vermont
Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut
Kenneth E. Carpenter, Harvard University Libraries
Scott E. Casper, University of Nevada, Reno
Mary Kupiec Cayton, Miami University
Joanne Dobson, Brewster, New York
James N. Green, Library Company of Philadelphia
Dean Grodzins, Massachusetts Historical Society
Robert A. Gross, University of Connecticut
Grey Gundaker, College of William and Mary
Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina
Richard R. John, Columbia University
Mary Kelley, University of Michigan
Jack Larkin, Clark University
David Leverenz, University of Florida
Meredith L. McGill, Rutgers University
Charles Monaghan, Charlottesville, Virginia
E. Jennifer Monaghan, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York
Gerald F. Moran, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Karen Nipps, Harvard University
David Paul Nord, Indiana University
Barry O'Connell, Amherst College
Jeffrey L. Pasley, University of Missouri-Columbia
William S. Pretzer, Central Michigan University
A. Gregg Roeber, Pennsylvania State University
David S. Shields, University of South Carolina
Andie Tucher, Columbia University
Maris A. Vinovskis, University of Michigan
Sandra A. Zagarell, Oberlin College

Index

Note: Italicized page numbers indicate figures. Names of fictional characters are followed by (fict.)

• Abercrombie, John, 133, 134
• Abolitionist literature, 47, 64, 217, 243, 487, 493
• Abolitionists, 185, 379, 463–64, 492–93, 525
• Abridgment of English Grammar (Murray), 308
• Abridgments, 539
• ABS. See American Bible Society
• Academician (journal), 313
• Academy of Natural Sciences, 258
• Accessibility of the press, 179–80
• Access to library collections, 278–79, 322
• Account book of Worcester bookbinder, 534
• Accounting practices, 95
• “Account of Louisiana, and of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers” (anonymous), 253
• “Act for the Encouragement of Learning” (1790), 21, 177, 202–3
• Act of Union (1801), 108
• Adams, Alexander, 325
• Adams, Daniel, 314, 316
• Adams, Hannah, 102, 311, 368
• Adams, John: and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 14; distrust of popular government, 445; and the free press, 394; on free-press doctrine, 59; on literacy and the free press, 516; and the press, 180; on science of government, 248; and U.S. mail, 216; on Wirt’s biography of Patrick Henry, 463
• Adams, John A., 433
• Adams, John Quincy, 143, 183–84
• Adams, Joseph Alexander, 434
• Address to the Congress (Brown), 277
• Address to the Whites (Boudinot), 504
• Adjutant booksellers, 87, 88
• Advance sheets, 41
• Advertisements, 86, 134, 264, 368, 422
• Advocate of Moral Reform (newspaper), 404
• African American newspapers, 167, 357, 402, 493
• African American publications, best-known, 490
• African Americans: and commitment of women writers to racial betterment, 379; diversity and flexibility of, 484; and ideal of impartial press, 11; intellectual heritage of, 492–93; literacy, association of with freedom, 483; literacy and print, deployment of, 351, 467–68, 494; literary societies of, 379; personal achievement and group advancement, 486–92; print culture as force for integration of, 529–30; in printing offices, 167; threats and racial solidarity among, 467; vernacular practices, adaptation of to alphabetic literacy, 485–86, 528. Se...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• A History of the Book in America Volume 2: An Extensive Republic Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, 1790–1840
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Editors’ and Authors’ Acknowledgments
• Introduction: An Extensive Republic
• Section I. A Republic in Print: Ideologies and Institutions
• Section II. Spreading the Word in Print
• Section III. Educating the Citizenry
• Section IV. Gendering Authorship and Audiences
• Section V. Genres of Print
• Section VI. New Reading and Writing Publics
• Bibliography and the AAS Catalog: A Note on Tables
• Notes
• Index