An International Conference
October 8-10, 1999
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Value of Books
Moderator: Tina Klein

The Death of Books: A Short History of Predictions
Priscilla Coit Murphy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

This short review of predictions of the end of books spans the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, with an eye to contemporary predictions that books-as-we-know-them may soon disappear. The nature of the sources, orientations, and underlying assumptions of these predictions is explored. The analysis reflects on the need to consider books as part of the media system, taking into account not only social, economic, and cultural issues but also the practitioners' perspectives.

 
 
Ideas and Commodities: The Image of the Book
Trysh Travis, Dedman College, Southern Methodist University

[The complete text of Trish Travis's paper is available.]

Modern publishers and readers alike have understood the book as a special communications medium within an increasingly competitive media environment. Beginning with the anti-advertising rhetoric that publishers adopted at the turn of the century, and continuing into the present, this paper explores our collective understanding of the book's difference from the media around it. I argue that this image, which begins with the book industry itself, but is sustained by popular ideas about books and reading, affords books a unique position within twentieth-century cultural politics. 

 
 
Where Ideal Avenue Meets Pratical Street: Publishing and the New Deal
Cathrine Turner, College Misericordia

This paper will trace the discussions in trade journal Publishers' Weekly over the various drafts of the NIRA code. It will focus on three major issues: price controls, new leisure time, and libraries, and how discussions of these issues tried to balance practical concerns with publishers' and booksellers' desire to appear high minded and beneficial to American culture. Not only do these discussions outline the book industry's efforts at defining their mission, they also show how publishers and sellers hoped the government might add new legitimacy to the value of culture. While publishers and booksellers may have been anxious about government involvement in their industry, many used the formation of the NIRA codes to express the industry's desire to buttress the value of cultural products at a time when ordinary citizens could no longer afford such luxuries. 

 
 
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