Cultural History of Reading: Volume 1, World Literature

Cultural History of Reading explores what people have read and why they have read it, at different times and in different places in America and around the world. Written in two volumes, the project links key cultural changes and events to the reading material of the period. In doing so, it offers students and teachers a lens through which to better understand the way that culture shapes, and is shaped by, the act of reading. The set is divided into two volumes, one focused on reading throughout the world, the other focused specifically on reading in the United States. While Volume One explores reading in different regions of the world, Volume Two looks at reading in different periods of American history. Both volumes trace reading trends through an exploration of types of texts as well as specific examples of books, magazines, and political treatises that were influential and/or widely read. The chapters use a similar organizational framework based on the types of texts readers read. Whereas Volume Two explores reading patterns in the United States from the early colonial period to the present day, Volume One examines reading as a global phenomenon, and includes chapters on the non-U.S. Americas (Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean), Europe and Britain, Asia and the Pacific, South Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent, and Africa and the Middle East.