HST 330 - Books & Their Readers

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement HU and is a linked (IL) course.
Meets requirement: W
This writing-intensive class will explore the history and meanings of print from Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the movable-type printing press to the advent of e-readers in the twenty-first century. Focusing primarily on the U.S. context, we will ask how, why, and what people have read, and what the meanings and consequences of reading have been for individuals, groups, and society at large. We will talk about the politics of literacy and censorship, the history of libraries, and the aesthetics of print. We will also think about books as objects, and about the history of their production, circulation, and consumption. The course includes hands-on work in Trexler Library Special Collections