Geographies of the Book

Geographies of the Book

Edited by Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary University of London, UK and Charles W.J. Withers, University of Edinburgh, UK

The geography of the book is as old as the history of the book. Yet, while book history is an established field of study, there has been much less focus on geographical approaches to the book.

Increasingly, however, new work is pointing to the spatial dimensions of book history. Recognition of the significance of place, of the effects of movement over space and of the importance of location in the making, meaning and reception of print culture has been a feature of this recent scholarship, which often draws upon the history of science as well as upon geography and book history.

This collection of essays by geographers, historians and historians of science brings together exciting new perspectives on the geographical dimensions of the book and print culture. Divided into three main sections: Geographies of Production; Geographies of Circulation; Geographies of Reception, the collection convincingly demonstrates that the relationships between the making, movement and reception of books are always geographical, and always complex.

Impressively wide-ranging over time and space yet thematically focused, this rich collection of essays ably demonstrates the crucial importance of geography. for understanding the production, circulation, and reception of books. It also shows how the study of geographical writings by authors such as Mungo Park, Varenius and Volney can benefit from the insights and methodologies of book history.-Richard B. Sher, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

Writing, editing, printing, distributing, selling, buying, reading, reviewing, debating...All of these practices and more enter into the constitution of the book, into what it is, what it does and why it matters. And all oldies of practices have inescapable and influential geographies, Jim, "the local" to "the far-flung", as this superb volume so convincingly demonstrates. Bringing together a range of scholars from different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, its collective force is to put 'geographies of the book' decisively on to all future maps of cultural, political and intellectual history. It is a most substantial accomplishment, far beyond what most edited collections can achieve.-Chris Philo, University of Glasgow, UK

Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary University of London, UK and Charles W.J. Withers, University of Edinburgh, UK