This revised, restructured and thoroughly updated edition of a classic text covers six centuries of publishing in Britain, from before the invention of the printing press to the electronic era. At the beginning of the 21st century, the publishing industry is being transformed by new technologies. Over 500 years ago, book production was revolutionised by an earlier new technology - the printing press and moveable type. A whole new industry grew out of this invention, an industry in which books were mass-produced for the first time. By the end of the 15th century printed books had largely ousted manuscripts in the commercial book trade; their predominance as an information medium was not seriously challenged until after the turn of the twentieth century, and even then only at the margins. The printed book became one of the symbols of Western culture. In this book, John Feather considers not only the publishing industry itself, but also areas affecting and affected by it, from education,
