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Books And the power of print
Why are books still around? • Our oldest mass medium is still our most influential and our most diverse. The very portability and compactness of books make them a preferred medium in many situations, including relaxing at the beach, passing lunch hour in the park, resting in bed, and traveling to work on city buses or commuter trains. • What about eBooks?
Books – why haven’t they gone the way of the audio cassette? • Most important, books and print culture enable individuals and nations to store knowledge from the past. In their key social role, books are still the main repository of human history and everyday experience, passing along stories, knowledge, and wisdom from generation to generation. • Is this changing? How or why?
The History of Books • Papyrus: material made from plant reeds found along the Nile River • Used as early as 2400 BC by Egyptians • By 650 BC by the Greeks • Between 300 – 100 BC by the Romans (who imported it from Egypt)
The History of Books • 1000BC – Chinese made book-like objects from strips of wood and bamboo tied together in bundles
The History of Books • Parchment: treated animal skin (first used by Babylonians) • Replaced papyrus • Stronger, smoother, more durable, and less expensive because it didn’t have to be imported from Egypt • Although the Chinese began making paper in AD 105, paper made by hand from cotton and linen didn’t replace parchment in Europe until the 13th century.
The History of Books • Codex: a type of book cut into sheets of parchment and sewn together along the edge, then bound with thin pieces of wood and covered with leather.
Manuscript Culture • A period in which books were painstakingly lettered, decorated, and bound by hand • Priests and monks, known as scribes, “wrote” most of the books (therefore most were religious in nature – ie. The Bible) • Scribes became the chief caretakers of recorded history and culture
Illuminated manuscripts • Middle Ages • Featured decorative, colorful designs and illustrations on each page • Scribes developed rules of punctuation and made distinctions between small and capital letters; they also put space between words • The oldest printed book still in existence is China’s Diamond Sutra by Wang Chieh, from AD 868
The Gutenberg Revolution • Movable type was first invented in China around the year 1000. • Also used in Korea as early as the 13th century • Printing press: invented independently in Germany between 1453 and 1456 (we said 1458 in the last unit) by Johannes Gutenberg • Gutenberg’s staff of printers produced the first so-called modern books, including two hundred copies of a Latin Bible • Printed on vellum – a fine handmade paper made with a treated animal skin
The Gutenberg Revolution • Found a way to carry knowledge across geographic boundaries • Formed the prototype for mass production • Printers gradually reduced the size of books and developed less expensive grades of paper, making books cheaper so more people could afford them
The Gutenberg Revolution • People could differentiate themselves as individuals; their social identities were no longer solely dependent on what their leaders told them or on the habits of their families, communities, or social class. • Access to ideas beyond isolated experiences – permitted them to challenge the traditional wisdom and customs of their leaders
1640 – first colonial book printed • 1752 – Encyclopedias- French scholars began compiling articles in alphabetical order. The first encyclopedias consisted of opinionated and radical writings that spurred debates all across Europe. • mid-1760’s – all thirteen colonies had printing shops. • Textbooks – In 1836, William H. McGuffey publishes the Eclectic Reader, and for the next 75 years 80% of U.S. school children learn to read from this textbook.
mid-1800’s – paperbacks made with cheaper paper covers introduced in the US from Europe. • In the 1870’s Mass Market Paperbacks, also known as Pulp Fiction, become popular. Pulp Fiction was marketed towards and popular with the middle and working class.
By 1880 Linotype and Lithography lowered the cost of books in the US. • Allowed books to be printed from photographic plates rather than metal casts. • Reducing the cost of color illustrations, offset printing accelerated production and eventually led to computerized typesetting • Result…literacy rates explode!!!
By 1885, one-third of all books published in the US were popular paperbacks and dime novels, sometimes identified as pulp fiction, a reference to the cheap, machine-made pulp paper they were printed on.
Book Clubs • In 1926, the Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild use popular writers and literary experts to recommend new books. Professional Books • As jobs became more specialized, the book industry begins to target various occupational groups in the 1960’s. • This is among the most lucrative segments of the book industry.
Borders Books • Following the success of a single bookstore that opens in 1971 in Ann Arbor, MI, a number of book chains begin developing superstores, changing the face of the book industry. • On February 16, 2011, Borders applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began liquidating 226 of its stores in the United States. Rival bookseller Barnes & Noble acquired Borders' trademarks and customer list. On October 14, 2011; Borders' former Website was replaced by a redirect to Barnes & Noble's site.
Amazon.com • The trailblazer of online book distribution, Amazon.com is established in 1995; it turns its first profit in 2002.
Harry Potter Books • The series by British author J.K. Rowling (1998) revitalizes the book industry and creates young reader mania around the world.
The early history of publishing demonstrated that books could widely disseminate and preserve culture and knowledge over time. Even if a paperback fell apart, another version usually existed in a public library or a personal book collection..
Oral culture depended on information and values passed down through the wisdom and memories of a community’s elders or tribal storytellers, and sometimes these rich traditions were lost.
Print culture and the book, however, gave future generations different and often more enduring records of particular authors’ words at particular periods in history.
Why do you think the availability of television and cable hasn’t substantially decreased the number of new book titles available each year? What do books offer that television does not?
In your opinion, what is the biggest threat to the book industry? Why?
