Table of Contents

Introduction: The Finger of Providence, 1815
1. Religion and Reading in Early America:
2. Millennial Print:
3. The New Mass Media: Economic Foundations:
4. The New Mass Media: National Institutions:
5. The New Mass Media: Systematic Distribution:
6. How Readers Should Read:
7. How Readers Did Read:
Epilogue: Fragmentation and Denomination
Appendix
Notes
Index

About the Author

David Paul Nord is Professor of Journalism and Adjunct Professor of History at Indiana University. He is also Associate Editor of the Journal of American History. Nord's research interests revolve around the history of journalism, religious publishing, and readership. He is author of Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers (2001).

Reviews

"...a welcome addition to the developing interest in American religious history as an important element in the larger national story." --The Historian
"The volume brilliantly achieves what it sets out to do: present a coherent institutional history and an analysis of the organizational logic of several major nonprofit religious publishers. The book makes an important contribution to scholarship in the history of the book, communications, economics, and Protestant religious history. This volume is a significant addition to scholarship of religious publishing and economic history that deserves faithful
reading." --Journal of Religion
"...short, clearly argued book that is a valuable contribution to the study of print media." --American Historical Review
"David Paul Nord's Faith in Reading is a learned, imaginative, and deft interpretation of the innovative role that evangelical Protestants played in the development of mass communication in 19th-century America. Nord writes with economy and grace, providing an elegant account of evangelicals' motives and methods within the larger context of the print revolution that preceded the Civil War. --Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut
"David Paul Nord's Faith in Reading is a jewel of a book, sparkling with crystal clear prose and coruscating from each of its facets: on reading in the churches and the world, on religion and commerce, on business for mission and for profit, on slavery and voluntary societies, and much, much more." --Mark A. Noll, author of Americas God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln
"An important book, sophisticated in its reflections on the so-called market revolution and democratization, and for these reasons deserving the attention of everyone who studies antebellum Protestantism." --David D. Hall, Harvard University
"Provides compelling insight into the relation of individuals to books at a crucial moment in American publishing." --SHARP News