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A History of Reading and Writing: In the Western World
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.
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.
- GenresBooks About Books
267 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2009
7 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Martyn Lyons
28 books10 followersEmeritus Professor of History & European Studies
BA DPhil Oxford FAHA
School of Humanities and Languages
He was born in London, took his D.Phil. at Oxford University and has been at UNSW since 1977. He is a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. He is currently Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities. His main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the history of books, reading and writing in Europe and Australia. He has produced sixteen books, including 'A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), and more recently 'The Writing Culture of ordinary people in Europe, c. 1860-1920' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
He is currently working on an ARC-funded project to investigate the writing practices of uneducated and semi-literate peasants in France, Spain and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He has held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil. In 1997, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities. In 2003, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Humanities in the study of History. In 2008-20, he was President of the Australian Historical Association. In 2008, he was Campagnia di San Paolo- Bogliasco Foundation Fellow at the Liguria Study Centre in Genoa, and in 2010 he was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.
BA DPhil Oxford FAHA
School of Humanities and Languages
He was born in London, took his D.Phil. at Oxford University and has been at UNSW since 1977. He is a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. He is currently Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities. His main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the history of books, reading and writing in Europe and Australia. He has produced sixteen books, including 'A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), and more recently 'The Writing Culture of ordinary people in Europe, c. 1860-1920' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
He is currently working on an ARC-funded project to investigate the writing practices of uneducated and semi-literate peasants in France, Spain and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He has held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil. In 1997, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities. In 2003, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Humanities in the study of History. In 2008-20, he was President of the Australian Historical Association. In 2008, he was Campagnia di San Paolo- Bogliasco Foundation Fellow at the Liguria Study Centre in Genoa, and in 2010 he was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 13, 2012
A well-written and intelligently skeptical examination of the history of reading and writing in the Western world. Lyons works to better contextualize the use of common evidence like the ability of people to sign legal documents and the numbers of vernacular Bibles in circulation. For example, he points out that since people learned to read before they learned to write (and many, especially women, never learned to write at all), using signatures as a sign of literacy ends up overestimating the number of people who could write and underestimates the number who could read.
Lyons also tries to show how over-simplified some historians' conclusions have been--Latin didn't disappear quite as rapidly as sometimes thought, nationalist feeling could be spread orally as well as in print, and print did not "stabilize" the text--this stability, when it came, was culturally produced by a community of writers, printers, etc.
For such a short work, he manages to examine and deconstruct a large number of myths, in addition to ones already mentioned that the coming of print was a "revolution," that print "caused" the Protestant Reformation, that readers moved from "intensive" to "extensive" styles of reading, etc.
Lyons also tries to show how over-simplified some historians' conclusions have been--Latin didn't disappear quite as rapidly as sometimes thought, nationalist feeling could be spread orally as well as in print, and print did not "stabilize" the text--this stability, when it came, was culturally produced by a community of writers, printers, etc.
For such a short work, he manages to examine and deconstruct a large number of myths, in addition to ones already mentioned that the coming of print was a "revolution," that print "caused" the Protestant Reformation, that readers moved from "intensive" to "extensive" styles of reading, etc.
October 22, 2012
Lyons offers an enjoyable and broad look at how reading and the culture of books developed in Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and Germany. The scope is very broad for a fairly short book; there is not a lot of depth offered despite a variety of incident and detail. Would have appreciated a look beyond the three big nations or more detail on some periods. I was particularly looking for information about how these readers obtained their books and found this lacking. Still, an enjoyable overview with interesting details.
October 19, 2012
What a fantastic book!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews