The letters of the Republic
Subtitle: publication and the public sphere in eighteenth-century America
By: Michael Warner.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1990
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 205
Subjects: Publishers and publishing -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Literature publishing -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 18th century; American literature -- 1783-1850 -- History and criticism; Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Public opinion -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Printing -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Description: Overview: The subject of Michael Warner's book is the rise of a nation. America, he shows, became a nation by developing a new kind of reading public, where one becomes a citizen by taking ones place as writer or reader. At heart, the United States is a republic of letters, and its birth can be dated from changes in the culture of printing in the early eighteenth century. The new and widespread use of print media transformed the relations between people and power in a way that set in motion the republican structure of government we have inherited.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-199) and index.