In his popular book The Germans (1982), Stanford historian Gordon Craig remarked: "When German intellectuals at the end of the eighteenth century talked of living in a Frederican age, they were sometimes referring not to the monarch in Sans Souci, but to his namesake, the Berlin bookseller Friedrich Nicolai." Such was the importance attributed to Nicolai’s role in the intellectual life of his age by his own contemporaries. While long neglected by students of the period, who tended to accept the caricature of him as a philistine who failed to recognize Goethe’s genius, Nicolai has experienced a resurgence of interest among scholars reexploring the German Enlightenment and the literary marketplace of the eighteenth century. This book, drawing upon Nicolai’s large unpublished correspondence, rounds out the picture we have of Nicolai already as author and critic by focusing on his roles as bookseller and publisher and as an Aufkärer in the book trade.

This volume is a ground-breaking contribution to enlightenment studies and the international and cross-cultural history of print. The result of a five year research project, the volume traces the output and dissemination of books and how reading tastes changed in the years 1769-1794. Mapping the book trade of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), a Swiss publisher-wholesaler which operated throughout Europe, the authors reconstruct the cosmopolitan elite culture of the later enlightenment, incorporating many engaging case studies. The STN's archives are uniquely rich in both detail and range, and while these archives have long attracted book historians (notably Robert Darnton, a leading scholar of the Enlightenment), existing work is fragmentary and limited in scope. By means of comparative study, the author considers the entire book market across Europe, making local, regional and chronological nuances, based on advanced taxonomies of subject content, author information, markers of illegality and much more. This volume is, in short, the most diverse and detailed study of the late 18th-century book trade yet, while offering fresh insights into the enlightenment.

The five volumes in A History of the Book in America offer a sweeping chronicle of our country's print production and culture from colonial times to the end of the twentieth century. This interdisciplinary, collaborative work of scholarship examines the book trades as they have developed and spread throughout the United States; provides a history of U.S. literary cultures; investigates the practice of reading and, more broadly, the uses of literacy; and links literary culture with larger themes in American history. Now available for the first time, this complete Omnibus ebook contains all 5 volumes of this landmark work. Volume 1 The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World Edited by Hugh Amory and David D. Hall 664 pp., 51 illus. Volume 2 An Extensive Republic: Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, 1790-1840 Edited by Robert A. Gross and Mary Kelley 712 pp., 66 illus. Volume 3 The Industrial Book, 1840-1880 Edited by Scott E. Casper, Jeffrey D. Groves, Stephen W. Nissenbaum, and Michael Winship 560 pp., 43 illus. Volume 4 Print in Motion: The Expansion of Publishing and Reading in the United States, 1880-1940 Edited by Carl F. Kaestle and Janice A. Radway 688 pp., 74 illus. Volume 5 The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America Edited by David Paul Nord, Joan Shelley Rubin, and Michael Schudson 632 pp., 95 illus.

"This impressive collaborative effort by two dozen leading authorities in the field will be essential reading for any serious student of the history of American publishing and print culture during one of its most crucially transformative periods." Lawrence Buell, Harvard University "A magnificent achievement. Brilliant editing and graceful writing shatter many old assumptions about the world of the Founders. Linking intellectual history with politics, social change, and the distinctive experiences of women, African Americans and Indians, An Extensive Republic is the rare reference book that is also a mesmerizing read." Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship "This volume provides a fascinating revisionist history of the United States through its focus on what was printed, how the economy of the book trades worked, who was reading, and what role reading came to assume in all sorts of people's lives. Editors Gross and Kelley make a strong team, and the contributors represent an array of disciplines suitable to the equally wide range of printed material in the United States between 1790 and 1840." Patricia Crain, New York University Volume 2 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.

"Discusses the role of the intellectual in public life. Argues that the scarcity of public intellectuals among today's academics is a challenge to us to explore alternative, more subtle forms of political intelligence. Looks to ancient, medieval, and modern traditions of learned advocacy"--Provided by publisher.

Based on extensive archival work, Characters before Copyright shows that fan fiction proliferated in the eighteenth century and explains why this phenomenon emerged when it did.

Some programs include also the programs of societies meeting concurrently with the association.

In their hundreds of entries and reviews the editorial staff have expanded both the quantity and depth of the work but also re-evaluated the subject headings to better reflect the needs of users, be they professionals or students. General categories include printing and bibliographical studies; historical, social and economic studies; philosophy,