Reading And Riding: Hachette's Railroad Bookstore Network in Nineteenth-Century France

by Eileen S. Demarco

Reading and Riding traces the foundation and development of Louis Hachette's Bibliotheque des Chemins de Fer and its impact on the social, political, and cultural history of nineteenth-century France. Begun as a means to market a special collection of books to train travelers, the railroad bookstore network transformed Hachette and Company from an academic publishing house into Europe's largest publisher and distributor of books, newspapers, and magazines. The evolution of the railroad bookstore network into a national chain bookstore shaped the industrialization of French publishing through the use of new marketing techniques and distribution methods as well as the large-scale employment of women. As the primary distributor of newspapers by the latter nineteenth century, the network played an important role in the establishment of the Third Republic, especially in light of the parliamentary crisis of May 16, 1877. This study will appeal to readers interested in the history of publishing, the history of France, as well as the history of consumer culture and women's studies.

172 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2006