What Is the Historiography of Books? Recent Studies in Authorship, Publishing, and Reading in Modern Britain and North America

Abstract

Historical and literary studies of the history of the book and of reading habits in modern Anglo-American history tend to approach their subject either from the perspective of readers and publishers or from that of authors. The former works constitute a nascent historiography, addressing the problem of how the material book was used to create and replicate culture; the latter studies are more concerned with how literary authors used texts to influence and negotiate culture. This article critically reviews the two bodies of scholarship and identifies the importance of copyright and reprinting; it comments on the value of transnational or other broad studies as opposed to specific investigations of a particular canonical text or local publishing/reading community.

The geography of a book on the pathways of its author: an analysis from Geography and Vision, by Denis Cosgrove

“…Para Howsam (2008), autor que faz uma análise da historiografia do livro desde o clássico texto de Darnton (1982) sobre o circuito de comunicações até os livros do bibliógrafo histórico Donald Mckenzie (1931Mckenzie ( -1999 e do historiador Roger Chartier (1945-), o desenvolvimento da abordagem historiográfica do livro associa-se a dois pressupostos interligados: a estabilidade material do objeto cultural [o livro] e a plasticidade cultural das unidades de leitura [redes nacionais, transnacionais, urbanas e disciplinares]. Como tais artefatos culturais adquirem forma e significado em diferentes contextos espaçotemporais?…”

“…Como tais artefatos culturais adquirem forma e significado em diferentes contextos espaçotemporais? Segundo Rubin (2003), a exemplo de Howsam (2008), esta é a questão unificadora da historiografia do livro.…”

“…A geografia e a história do livro (Ogborn & Withers, 2010;Keighren, 2013;Rubin, 2003;Darnton, 2007;Howsam, 2008) são interesses de pesquisa que se beneficiam do diálogo entre si. Com vistas a contribuir para a história do pensamento geográfico, as abordagens empíricas e metodológicas de historiadores e sociólogos da ciência são também fundamentais para a compreensão do "conhecimento em trânsito", para novamente utilizar os termos de Secord (2004).…”

Geographies of the Book: Review and Prospect

“…Apparently silent and inert, books are magnets for dust; at once dead wood and a dying medium (Baker ; Birkerts ; Darnton ; Gomez ; Striphas ). Scholars in a variety of disciplines have, however, shown books to be a rich and productive focus of study (see, for example, Apple et al ; Baron et al ; Cavallo & Chartier ; Chartier ; Frasca‐Spada & Jardine ; Howsam ; McKitterick ; Price ; Robertson ; Sher ; Suarez & Woudhuysen ). Printed books—as a medium of communication, a material product and a cultural symbol—are more than simply the physical manifestation of a technological process; they mirror and inform the societies in which they are produced and consumed; they inspire passions and provoke debate; they are, at turns, venerated and burned.…”

Book Mavens of Manila : an interpretative phenomenological analysis of contemporary niche publishers in the Philippines

“…Guided by their work, these shall be the primary subjects of the succeeding paragraphs. Interestingly, book historian Leslie Howsam (2008) claimed that book history itself has yet to profit from an in-depth historiography of its own. This perhaps stemmed from the desire of book historians for comprehensiveness.…”