The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period

During the centuries when printed paper was the only means by which texts could be carried across time and distance, everyone engaged in politics, education, and literature believed that reading helped to shape the minds, attitudes, and actions of readers. William St Clair investigates how the national culture can be understood through a study of the books that were actually read. Centered on the romantic period in the English-speaking world, but ranging across the whole print era, St Clair's study reaches startling conclusions about the forces that determined how ideas were passed into wider society by way of print. From quantified information he provides on book prices, print runs, intellectual property, and readerships gathered from over fifty publishing and printing archives, St Clair offers a picture of the past very different from those presented by traditional approaches.