Read more
This groundbreaking study examines the production of ephemeral literature and the creation of a mass reading public in lowland Scotland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
The Press and the People transforms our understanding of popular culture in early modern Scotland and Britain more widely.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Establishing the Market
- 1: Creating a Reading Public
- 2: The Edinburgh Book Trade and Vernacular Literature, 1500-1660
- 3: The Edinburgh Book Trade and Popular Wares, 1660-1785
- 4: The Book Trade in Aberdeen, Glasgow, and the Smaller Burghs to 1785
- 5: Street Literature
- Part II: Varieties of Cheap Print
- 6: Handbills and Placards
- 7: Last Words and Dying Speeches
- 8: Ballads and Songs
- 9: Almanacs and Prognostications
- 10: Little Pamphlets and Story Books
- Conclusion
About the author
Adam Fox is Professor of Social History at the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught since 1994. His works include the prize-winning Oral and Literate Culture in England 1500-1700 (Oxford University Press, 2000).
Summary
This groundbreaking study examines the production of ephemeral literature and the creation of a mass reading public in lowland Scotland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The Press and the People transforms our understanding of popular culture in early modern Scotland and Britain more widely.
Additional text
The book's overall contribution is immense, presenting a radically original picture of print material that Scots had access to and were reading in this period, and showing how widespread print was in Scottish life. The sheer quantity of examples discussed is astonishing. This book deserves to be read by anyone interested in Scottish print, reading, or cultural history in the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries.
