A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book , this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in an affordable format! The 54 chapters introduce readers to the fascinating world of book history. Including 21 thematic studies on topics such as writing systems, the ancient and the medieval book, and the economics of print, as well as 33 regional and national histories, offering a truly global survey of the book around the world, The Book: A Global History is the most comprehensive work of its kind. The three new articles, specially commissioned for this edition, cover censorship, copyright and intellectual property, and book history in the Caribbean and Bermuda. All essays are illustrated throughout with reproductions, diagrams, and examples of various typographical features. Beautifully produced and highly informative, this is a must-have for anyone with an interest in book history and the written word. A Look Inside: The Book: A Global History [Click Images to Enlarge] A composing frame with two sets of cases of type: the upper case lies at a steeper angle than the lower case. By permission of Oxford University Press. Images were cut on wood at an early date and used with type to make illustrations or decorations, and sometimes even whole words. This image shows a box of John Fell’s pica italic matrices, with some steel punches for larger capitals beneath them. By permission of Oxford University Press. The basic structural features of a European bookbinding in the medieval and hand press periods. Line drawing by Chartwell Illustrators.. *Starred Review* This work contains essays previously published in volume 1 of The Oxford Companion to the Book (2010) with three additional essays: one on intellectual property and copyright, one on censorship, and one covering the Caribbean and Bermuda. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part consists of 21 thematic essays covering familiar topics, such as sacred books, various print technologies, and bookbinding, as well as the less familiar, such as missionary printing. In the second part, 49 essays explore the history of books in various parts of the world. Just as in the original work, the essays are of a scholarly nature and are geared toward specialist academicians, but they are extremely well written. The notion of “book” is very broad, as is the coverage here. A wide variety of topics are explored: the physical book from the beginning of writing systems to digital texts (including pre-Gutenberg forms such as tablets, hides, shells, and leaves); the production of books (covering areas such as printing, bookbinding, and bookselling); legal topics (such as intellectual property and censorship); and specialized forms (such as children’s books and religious texts). Curiously, there isn’t a thematic essay on libraries—which seems especially erroneous since some of the essays cover esoteric or less common aspects of books. The geographic essays occupy about two-thirds of the text. The coverage here is extensive, but it is biased toward Western countries—possibly because mass printing was invented in Europe. Readers looking for Central Asia have to reference the chapter on the Muslim world as well as the chapter covering China. Unfortunately, geographic regions are very sparingly referenced in the index. There are short bibliographies at the end of each essay. For readers interested in an academic treatment of the history of books, bookmaking, and the business of books, this collection of essays is a good place to start. More affordable than the original two-volume set, this dissemination of The Oxford Companion to the Book is highly recommended for academic libraries and for public libraries where there is an interest in a scholarly treatment of books. --Muhammed Hassanali "...the most likely reader of The Book will be students, as this collection is perhaps best as a textbook for an introductory book history course. ... students would find the essays, many with black and white illustrations, approachable and digestible. The chapters also include bibliographies that would be of great use to students learning about the field. ... the editors also include references to related chapters within the essays so readers can easily trace connections between the readings - a useful resource not only for students but also for instructors developing a syllabus. Moreover, the much more reasonable price of The Book , compared to The Oxford Companion to the Book , makes it suitable for course adoption, and its additional availability in electronic form aids in Michael F. Suarez and H. R. Woudhuysen's stated aims of increasing the circulation of this commendable work." --Alison Rukavina, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada "For readers interested in an academic treatment of the history of books, bookmaking, and the business of books, this collection of essays is a good place to