The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control

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The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control (eBook) Pub. Date: 6/5/2009 Publisher: Columbia University Press
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The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control Pub. Date: 1/4/2011 Publisher: Columbia University Press
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The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control Pub. Date: 4/1/2009 Publisher: Columbia University Press

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Overview

Ted Striphas argues that, although the production and propagation of books have undoubtedly entered a new phase, printed works are still very much a part of our everyday lives. With examples from trade journals, news media, films, advertisements, and a host of other commercial and scholarly materials, Striphas tells a story of modern publishing that proves, even in a rapidly digitizing world, books are anything but dead.

From the rise of retail superstores to Oprah's phenomenal reach, Striphas tracks the methods through which the book industry has adapted (or has failed to adapt) to rapid changes in twentieth-century print culture. Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.com have established new routes of traffic in and around books, and pop sensations like Harry Potter and the Oprah Book Club have inspired the kind of brand loyalty that could only make advertisers swoon. At the same time, advances in digital technology have presented the book industry with extraordinary threats and unique opportunities.

Striphas's provocative analysis offers a counternarrative to those who either triumphantly declare the end of printed books or deeply mourn their passing. With wit and brilliant insight, he isolates the invisible processes through which books have come to mediate our social interactions and influence our habits of consumption, integrating themselves into our routines and intellects like never before.

What People Are Saying

Janice Radway

Neither overly alarmist nor excessively nostalgic about the fate of books in a digital age, The Late Age of Print provides a lucid, balanced view of how books are changing in response to a fast-evolving media environment. Ted Striphas proves to be a highly reliable guide to the question of what might happen to books and book reading in the years to come. He will interest anyone who has ever wondered how writing and reading will be conducted in the future.

— Janice Radway, Northwestern University, and author of A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire

John Durham Peters

The Late Age of Print is exciting, clear, topical, interesting, and important. Ted Striphas has a voracious curiosity and is a great finder of material. How many of us have reflected on the history of bookshelves or have bothered to understand the mechanics of ISBN numbers or their political-economic-intellectual significance? Who knew the full story behind Oprah's Book Club, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble? This book provides a fine overview of the best English-language scholarship on books and print culture. Tackling the broad meaning of books over the past century, it says something broader about life in our era. Striphas gives the best integrated overview of the book in our moment and participates in public debates about education, literature, culture, and capitalism.

— John Durham Peters, University of Iowa, and author of Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition

Siva Vaidhyanathan

I thought I understood American publishing. After reading this work, I am struck by how little I actually knew.

— Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, and author of The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Attempting to short circuit the perennial chorus of eulogies for the publishing industry, the book, and/or print media as a whole, Striphas explores the culture of books and book reading in a time of rapid change-not just in media technology, but in "patterns of work and leisure, ... laws governing commodity ownership and use," and elsewhere-without presuming the medium faces "a full-blown crisis." A communications and cultural studies professor, Striphas (of Indiana University) traces the modern evolution of the book as it has been affected by commercial phenomena like the big box bookstore, mass distribution, e-books and Oprah's book club, managing to craft an accessible and entertaining narrative out of a highly academic history (oddly enough, the world-wide legal adventures of Harry Potter are especially captivating). Though he can get repetitive, Striphas sees the culture clearly in its parts and as a whole, and this collection of historical and commercial analysis should fascinate those seriously involved with book culture and/or the industry.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Booklist

Forget the premature obituaries for books and reading. Striphas insists that books remain a vital presence in the twenty-first century.

More Reviews (7) Fewer Reviews

Books and Culture

Striphas does an excellent job.

— Alan Jacobs

Choice

A solid work of scholarship that fills in several significant gaps... Highly Recommended.

Critical Flame

It is rare to say of a university press hardcover that it is a "must-read," but for those interested in the confluence of culture and economics as it relates to books, that is what The Late Age of Print is.

— Richard Nash

Information Today

This book is a gold mine of information and thought about book culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

— Gwen M. Gregory

Publishing Research Quarterly

A magnificent achievement that makes a compelling series of arguments about the continuing importance of books and book publishing.

Sacramento Book Review

The Late Age of Print is an important history of the book and their impact on (mostly) American culture.

Technology and Culture

What is it that you purchase when you buy a book? In describing the answer, [Striphas]is admirably clear about the choices publishers or booksellers made, and why.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231148153
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 1/4/2011
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 713,638
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Ted Striphas is assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Culture and adjunct professor of American Studies and Cultural Studies at Indiana University. He is the coeditor of the book Communication as... : Perspectives on Theory and a special issue on intellectual property published by the journal Cultural Studies. To learn more, visit his Web site at www.thelateageofprint.org.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Late Age of Print1. E-books and the Digital Future2. The Big-Box Bookstore Blues3. Bringing Bookland Online4. Literature as Life on Oprah's Book Club5. Harry Potter and the Culture of the CopyConclusion: From Consumerism to ControlNotesIndex

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