Print in Motion The Expansion of Publishing and Reading in the United States, 1880-1940 - A History of the Book in America

Print becomes part of our everyday lives.In a period characterized by expanding markets, national consolidation, and social upheaval, print culture in America picked up momentum as the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth. Books, magazines, and newspapers were produced more quickly and more cheaply, reaching ever-increasing numbers of readers. Volume 4 of ""A History of the Book in America"" traces the complex, even contradictory consequences of these changes in the production, circulation, and use of print.Contributors to this volume explain that although mass production encouraged consolidation and standardization, readers increasingly adapted print to serve their own purposes, allowing for increased diversity in the midst of concentration and integration.In considering the book within larger social and cultural networks, the essayists here address the rise of consumer culture, the extension of literacy and reading through schooling, the expansion of secondary and postsecondary education and the growth of the textbook industry, the growing influence of the professions and their dependence on print culture, and the history of relevant technology. As these illuminating essays attest, the expansion of print culture between 1880 and 1940 enabled it to become an integral part of Americans' everyday business, social, political, and religious lives.