false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177507456m/709124.jpg 709124 2 Weighing in at 750-plus pages, Adrian Johns's sturdy tome is several books in one. At one level, it is a close study of print culture in early modern England, a time of civil war in which social and civic relations were being remade from the mores of feudal monarchy to a politics approximating modern democracy. In this transformation, the printing press was an essential vehicle for empowering the common people, and control over the publishing industry was contested among several parties--the government, authors, booksellers, the printers themselves. At another level, Johns's book is a study of the role of printing in the formation of scientific knowledge, a means whereby scientific discoveries could be widely circulated and codified. At another, it is a contribution to the sociology of communication, concentrating on changes in English society thanks to the press, through which a literate but remarkably isolated people who, an 18th-century writer observed, knew no more of the city and countryside outside their immediate neighborhood than they did of France or Russia, could become aware of the larger world--often over the objections of power-makers like Sir Francis Bacon, who urged that the people not be given access to information that did not immediately concern them. <p> Johns's book is dense with facts and quotations from the contemporary literature, but his prose is lightened by keen observation and telling anecdotes. (In one, Benjamin Franklin tried to make his way across Europe as a journeyman printer but grew so disgusted at the copious drinking of his fellow tradesmen that he switched careers, an accident that would change the course of history.) <I>The Nature of the Book</I> will be especially useful to those now tracking the communications revolution of the late 20th century, in which new technologies are once again changing power relations and supplanting old media. <I>--Gregory McNamee</I> 695398 4 1998 The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making total:21|5:5|4:10|3:5|2:1| 21 82 52 5 4 2 false false Sat May 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 21:55:09 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 18:34:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Jun 13 10:22:15 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 13 10:24:26 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue May 19 18:05:02 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 23:24:14 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 19:14:56 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 18:59:03 -0700 2008
Tha...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jan 25 05:19:58 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 05:59:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 17 07:59:21 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 07:59:21 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 14 06:33:48 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 06:49:13 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 13 09:08:07 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 09:08:07 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 04 23:08:40 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 23:08:44 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 11 22:35:29 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 22:35:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 11 14:15:35 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 14:16:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Aug 08 17:08:13 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 17:31:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 06 09:40:50 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 23:17:13 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 00:55:05 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 04:37:49 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 00:55:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 07 12:12:01 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 12:12:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 22 21:23:01 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 21:23:01 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jun 19 20:46:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 20:46:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 09 09:25:26 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 09:25:26 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 16:30:41 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 02:16:10 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed May 20 12:47:53 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 12:48:04 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=709124