sarah reviewed Old Books and New Histories by Leslie Howsam
A+ disciplinary situatedness
5 stars
Rereading this as teaching prep and rediscovering how much I love this book. It was just about the first thing I read as a budding book historian to help me think about what the field might be. And returning to those questions today from a position of much greater familiarity with book history, I’m struck by how nuanced and yet available to newcomers Howsam is (and now that I know Leslie, it’s no surprise—she and her work are like that!). Anyways, if you’re looking to get a sense of why and what book history might be, this will be tremendously helpful.