History of the Book: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Current faculty: Jeffrey D. Groves

Description: This seminar will offer an overview of the field’s primary materials, theoretical models, and scholarly approaches by utilizing participatory seminars and hands-on sessions with printed works and printing technologies from the last two centuries.  The seminar is intended for those who have had little to no formal instruction in the history of the book.  Topics will include: defining “the history of the book”; the material book; transitions in printing technologies and materials; the rise of the publisher; doing business with books; investigating authorship and readership; educational systems and the history of the book. While the seminar will note some world-wide developments in the history of the book, most of the discussions and artifacts examined will center on Europe and North America.

Requirements: No previous experience necessary.

Years taught: 2012, 2014, 2018