Book Value Categories and the Acceptance of Technological Changes in English Book Production / / Simon Rosenberg.

• Superior document: Münsteraner Monographien zur englischen Literatur
• VerfasserIn: Rosenberg, Simon,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin : : Peter Lang Publishing,, 2020.; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Münsteraner Monographien zur englischen Literatur.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (293 pages)

For more than 20 years now, the publishing industry has been highly influenced by innovations in digital technology. This is not the first time that technological changes affect the book trade. Both the printing press and industrialized production methods vitally changed the book industry in their time. With a macroscopic, comparative approach, this book looks at the transitional phases of the book of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries to locate distinctive patterns in the acceptance of new technologies. Using specific book value categories, which shape the acceptance context of innovations in book production, helps us find continuities and discontinuities of these patterns. It also offers a better understanding of current developments in publishing in the digital age.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11 -- The Death of the Printed Book? 12 -- The Book as an Evolutionary Process? . 16 -- The Book . 18 -- Publishing . 19 -- Structure . 23 -- Approach of This Study 27 -- 1. Basic Concepts: Value and Acceptance . 31 -- 1.1. Value . 31 -- 1.2. Acceptance . 38 -- 1.3. Value and the Book . 42 -- The Value Chain of Publishing 48 -- 1.4. Book Value Categories 51 -- Economic Value . 53 -- Content Value . 54 -- Symbolic Value . 56 -- Conclusion 60 -- 2. The Gutenberg Age . 63 -- 2.1. Context: Introduction of the Printed Book . 64 -- Type Material . 65 -- Paper 65 -- Printing Process . 66 -- Gutenberg's B42 . 68 -- Incunables as Transitional Books 72 -- 8 Contents -- 2.2. Early Printing Presses in England . 75 -- 2.2.1. Preconditions in England 75 -- Readers . 80 -- Publishing Categories 81 -- Patronage . 83 -- 2.2.2. William Caxton 84 -- 2.2.3. Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson . 94 -- Comparing Caxton, de Worde and Pynson 105 -- 2.2.4. The English Provinces 109 -- Oxford (1478-1519) . 109 -- Cambridge (1520-1522) 114 -- St Albans (1479-1486) . 116 -- 2.3. Acceptance of the Printed Book in England . 119 -- 2.4. The Book Value Categories Applied . 127 -- 3. The Industrial Age 133 -- 3.1. Context: England During the Industrialization 134 -- 3.1.1. Publication 138 -- Authors 138 -- Publisher 143 -- 3.1.2. Manufacture 146 -- Printing from Plates . 146 -- Paper 152 -- Sourcing of Material . 154 -- New Printing Presses . 157 -- 3.1.3. Reception . 159 -- 3.1.4. Distribution . 165 -- Railways . 166 -- Libraries . 167 -- Mudie's "Select Library" . 169 -- 3.2. Acceptance of Industrialized Book Production 176 -- 3.3. Book Value Categories Applied 182 -- 4. The Digital Age 189 -- 4.1. Context: Introduction of the E-Book . 193 -- 4.2. Publishing in the Digital Age 198 -- 4.2.1. The Early E-Book-Market . 198 -- 4.2.2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Content 203 -- Support of Acceptance . 207 -- Hindrances of Acceptance . 211 -- Piracy 211 -- Price Policy 213 -- Formats . 214 -- Reading Devices 215 -- 4.3. Acceptance of the Digital Book . 220 -- 4.4. The Book Value Categories Applied . 226 -- Conclusion . 231 -- Gutenberg Age . 235 -- Industrial Age 236 -- Digital Age 237 -- Prognosis? 241 -- List of Illustrations . 249 -- Bibliography 251.