Edinburgh History of Reading

Jonathan Rose is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History at Drew University, USA. He is the author of Readers’ Liberation (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Literary Churchill: Author, Reader, Actor (Yale University Press, 2014), which won the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Book Prize, and The Edwardian Temperament 1895-1919 (Ohio University Press, 1986). He is also the editor of The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001) and co-editor of A Companion to the History of the Book (Blackwell, 2007) and British Literary Publishing Houses, 1820-1965 (Gale, 1991).

Taken together, the four volumes of The Edinburgh History of Reading constitute a fascinating compendium of research on readers and reading. […] The volumes successfully demonstrate the diversity of their subjects’ encounters with texts of all kinds, and highlight the importance of reading as both shared cultural practice and intensely individual experience.

• Introduction, Jonathan RoseChapter 1. British Commonplace Readers, 1706 – 1879, Jillian M. HessChapter 2. Reading in God’s Treasure-House: The Societies for Purchasing Books in Leadhills and Wanlockhead, 1741-1820, Margaret JoachimChapter 3. The School Library and Childhood Reading in Lowland Scotland, 1750-1850, Maxine Branagh-MiscampbellChapter 4. ‘Although ambitious we did not aspire to such dizzy heights’: Manuscript Magazines and Communal Reading Practices of London Literary Societies in the Long Nineteenth Century, Lauren WeissChapter 5. Space and Place in Nineteenth-Century Images of Women Readers, Amelia YeatesChapter 6. Asian Classic Literature and the English General Reader, 1845-1915, Alexander BubbChapter 7. Readers and Reading During Russia’s Literacy Transition 1850-1950: How Readers Shaped a Great Literature, Jeffrey BrooksChapter 8. F. F. Pavlenkov’s Literacy Project: Popular Serials and Reading Rooms for the Russian Masses, Carol Ueland and Ludmilla A. TrigosChapter 9. Formal and Informal Networks of Book Provision for Rural Children in Australia and New Zealand, 1900-1960, Bronwyn LoweChapter 10. Putting Your Best Books Forward: A Historical and Psychological Look at the Presentation of Book Collections, Nicole Gonzalez and Nick Weir-WilliamsChapter 11. In Search of the Chinese Common Reader: Vernacular Knowledge in an Age of New Media, Joan JudgeChapter 12. From ‘Bookworms’ to ‘Scholar-Farmers’: Tao Xingzhi and Changing Understandings of Literacy in the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement 1923-1934, Zach SmithChapter 13. The Voice of the Reader: The Landscape of Online Book Discussion in the Netherlands, 1997-2016, Peter BootChapter 14. Novel Ideas: The Promotion of North American Book Club Books and the Creation of Their Readers, DeNel Rehberg Sedo and Samantha RideoutChapter 15. Sprawling Reader Response and the Diffusion of Social Media Space: Conceptualizing a Community of Readers via Vlogbrothers, Jennifer Burek PierceList of Contributors