A History of Reading and Writing In the Western World [Hardcover]

Martyn Lyons surveys the changing relationships enjoyed by men and women with the written word, from early times to the present day. He provides a highly-readable account of the social history of reading and writing, relating it to key historical moments such as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment.

Offering a fresh history centred on the reactions and experiences of ordinary readers and writers, Lyons deals with key turning points that occurred throughout the centuries, such as the invention of the codex, the transition from scribal to print culture, the reading revolution and the industrialisation of the book.
Tracing the major historical developments across Europe and North America which revolutionised our relationship with texts, this book provides an engaging and invaluable overview of the history of scribal and print culture.



What is the History of Reading and Writing?.- Reading and Writing in the Ancient and Medieval world.- Was There a Printing Revolution?.- Print and the Protestant Reformation.- Renaissance Books and Humanist Readers.- Print and Popular Culture.- The Rise of Literacy in the Early Modern West, c.1600-1800.- Censorship and the Reading Public in Pre-revolutionary France.- The Reading Fever, 1750-1830.- The Age of the Mass Reading Public.- New Readers and Reading Cultures.- The Democratisation of Writing, 1800 to the Present.- Readers and Writers in the Digital Age .- Further Reading.
MARTYN LYONS is Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of several works on French revolutionary history and on the history of reading and writing practices. His publications include Le Triomphe du Livre, Readers and Society in 19th Century France, and Reading Culture and Writing Practices in 19th Century France.

Martyn Lyons surveys the changinls+