Beginning March 31, all class meetings will be held via Zoom (the link is provided in Blackboard).
Any student who is unable to attend can make up that attendance by writing an extended discussion board post for that date (at least 300 words) and responding to two reading takeaways.
If you need an extension or other accommodations, please get in touch, and we will figure something out.

Course Description
Have you ever judged a book by its cover? It’s okay – we all do it! In this course, we will actively learn why and how it might be valuable and interesting to judge books by their covers, pages, and typefaces – as well as how these material facts fit into the larger history of how humans make and use texts. We’ll begin with an overview of material text production across history and cultures, examining early writing and publishing technologies. We'll move through the transition from scribal to print cultures and the hand press period, through the nineteenth-century industrialization of print, and end with digital texts and the internet. Students learn about the relationships between texts and their material embodiments, from stone to screen, papyrus to paper, codex to Kindle. A primary principle of this course will also be learning by doing in a hands-on way. Students will produce prints in the English department Letterpress Studio, as well as bind a book—learning about some of the stages of textual production. The course is the foundational course in the undergraduate minor in Book History and Digital Humanities.

Learning Outcomes 

• broadly articulate the history of the book from ancient worlds through the present, from production to dissemination to reception
• explain terms and ideas associated with history of the book
• explain and demostrate the ways book historians research and examine texts
• integrate theories and skills associated with book history into their own research
• write persuasively, clearly, and effectively about book history
• integrate theories and skills associated with book history into their own research

Required Texts and Materials
Note: you must bring your copies of required texts to class on the dates they’re being discussed, and you must use the editions listed below since we are also using their footnotes, introductions, and appendices. AddAll and BookFinder are good ways to find used copies; searching by ISBN will get you the correct edition.

• Finkelstein, David, and Alistair McCleery, eds. An Introduction to Book History. 2^nd ed. Routledge, 2012. ISBN 9780415688062.
• Additional readings as listed below, available in Blackboard.
• Slack app (workspace 3350spring2020.slack.com with all notifications enabled) for course communications

Required Work
NB: students must complete all assignments in order to pass the course. Click the links below for specific assignment guidelines.
Some details of these assignments have changed because we've moved online. Please click through to the highlighted assignments for details.

Schedule of Readings and Assignments (subject to change)