The Edinburgh History of Reading

Analyses the traces that readers across the ages have left behind Bringing together the latest scholarship from all over the world on topics ranging from reading practices in ancient China to the workings of the twenty-first-century reading brain, the 4 volumes of the Edinburgh History of Reading demonstrate that reading is a deeply imbricated, socio-political practice, at once personal and public, defiant and obedient. It is often materially ephemeral, but it can also be emotionally and intellectually enduring. Mary Hammond is Professor of English and Book History at the University of Southampton Jonathan Rose is William R. Kenan Professor of History at Drew University.