The letters of the Republic : publication and the public sphere in eighteenth-century America /
Michael Warner.
- Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1990.
- xv, 205 pages ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-199) and index.
Preface -- Cultural mediation of the print medium -- Res Publica of letters -- Franklin: representational politics of the man of letters -- Textuality and legitimacy in the printed constitution -- Nationalism and the problem of republican literature -- Novel: fantasies of publicity -- Notes -- Index.
Overview: The subject of Michael Warner's book is the rise of a nation. America, he shows, became a nation by developing a new kind of reading public, where one becomes a citizen by taking ones place as writer or reader. At heart, the United States is a republic of letters, and its birth can be dated from changes in the culture of printing in the early eighteenth century. The new and widespread use of print media transformed the relations between people and power in a way that set in motion the republican structure of government we have inherited.
0674527860
Publishers and publishing--History--United States--18th century. Politics and literature--History--United States--18th century. Literature and society--History--United States--18th century. Literature publishing--History--United States--18th century. Books and reading--History--United States--18th century. American literature--History and criticism.--1783-1850