The story of Oxford University Press spans five centuries of printing and publishing. This first volume traces the beginnings of the University Press, its relationship with the University, and developments in printing and the book trade, as well as the growing influence of the Press on the city of Oxford.

In 14 original essays, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present. Leading international scholars offer an original and richly illustrated narrative that is global in scope. The history of the book is the history of millions of written, printed, and illustrated texts, their manufacture, distribution, and reception. Here are different types of production, from clay tablets to scrolls, from inscribed codices to printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, from written parchment to digital texts. The history of the book is a history of different methods of circulation and dissemination, all dependent on innovations in transport, from coastal and transoceanic shipping to roads, trains, planes and the internet. It is a history of different modes of reading and reception, from learned debate and individual study to public instruction and entertainment. It is a history of manufacture, craftsmanship, dissemination, reading and debate. Yet the history of books is not simply a question of material form, nor indeed of the history of reading and reception. The larger question is of the effect of textual production, distribution and reception - of how books themselves made history. To this end, each chapter of this volume, succinctly bounded by period and geography, offers incisive and stimulating insights into the relationship between books and the story of their times.

Oxford University Press is one of the oldest and best-known publishing houses in the world. This history, originally published to mark 500 years of printing in Oxford, traces the transformation of the Press from a lucrative Bible house into a great national and international publishing business. Great names in the early history of the Press, like Laud, Fell, and Blackstone, laid sound foundations, but as late as the 1890s the University was censured for sanctioning the publication of the secular and profane literature of Marlowe and Shakespeare.

'Early Modern' is a term applied to the period which falls between the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the nineteenth century. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to Europe in this period, exploring the changes and transitions involved in the move towards modernity. Nine newly commissioned chapters under the careful editorship of Euan Cameron cover social, political, economic, and cultural perspectives, all contributing to a full and vibrant picture of Europe during this time. The chapters are organized thematically, and consider the evolving European economy and society, the impact of new ideas on religion, and the emergence of modern political attitudes and techniques. The text is complemented with many illustrations throughout to give a feel of the changes in life beyond the raw historical data.

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. In this Pulitzer prize-winning, critically acclaimed addition to the series, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent. A panoramic narrative, What Hath God Wrought portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. Howe examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. In addition, Howe reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States. Winner of the New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize Finalist, 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction The Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative.

Britain is an island nation and throughout history its navy has been of great importance for its defence. As a consequence it has always had a special significance and has over the centuries entrenched itself in the national psyche, making itself manifest not only through the hero-worship ofits principal characters such as Horatio Nelson and Sir Francis Drake but also finding expression through art, music, and literature.Like any great national institution, the navy is a complex web of interconnected histories - operational, strategic, political, economic, administrative, technological, and social. Now updated for its paperback edition, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy, in a series of fourteenchapters, provides a thorough and engaging treatment of these histories, covering every aspect of naval history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the dawn of the new millennium.The book explores:Major action and campaigns - the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Battle of Jutland, the Atlantic Campaign of 1939-45, the Falklands conflict, the Gulf War, and attacks on terrorist bases in Afghanistan in 2001.Developments in naval history and technology - navigational advances, surveying, constructional developments, disaster relief, the suppression of the slave trade, and the Strategic Defence Review of 1998.Key personalities - Drake and Nelson, Samuel Pepys, Francis Beaufort, Jackie Fisher, Lord Charles Beresford, Lord Jellicoe.Naval life - recruitment (press gangs, training, education, discipline), tactics, gunnery and armaments, amphibious operations, wages and conditions, victualling and supply.How and when did Britain's perception of the sea change from a thing of fear to a 'moat defence' (in the words of Shakespeare)?How did the navy's administrative systems develop during the Tudor period?During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, its greatest period of expansion, how did the navy develop strategically and operationally?How successfully did the navy defend the British Empire during the nineteenth century?What role did the navy play in Victorian Britain's thirst for exploring of the world?What technical developments have been important to the navy?What effect did two world wars have on the role of the Royal Navy?What does the modern navy look like now and what about the future?With a full chronology, which has been brought up to date to the end of 2001, an extensive list of further reading, 16 pages of colour plates, 23 maps, 6 special Action Station diagram 'box' features, and around 200 black-and-white integrated illustrations, this is an authoritative and highlyreadable account of a unique fighting service and its people.

Americans today choose from a dizzying array of schools, loosely lumped into categories of "public" and "private." How did these distinctions emerge in the first place, and what do they tell us about the more general relationship in the United States between public authority and private enterprise? In Public vs. Private, Robert N. Gross describes how, more than a century ago, public policies fostered the rise of modern school choice. In the late nineteenth century, American Catholics began constructing rival, urban parochial school systems, an enormous and dramatic undertaking that challenged public school systems' near-monopoly of education. In a nation deeply committed to public education, mass attendance in Catholic schools produced immense conflict. States quickly sought ways to regulate this burgeoning private sector and the competition it produced, even attempting to abolish private education altogether in the 1920s. Ultimately, however, Gross shows how the public policies that resulted produced a stable educational marketplace, where choice flourished. The creation of the educational marketplace that we have inherited today--with systematic alternatives to public schools--was as much a product of public power as of private initiative. Gross also demonstrates that schools have been key sites in the development of the American legal conceptions of "public" and "private". Landmark Supreme Court cases about the state's role in regulating private schools, such as the 1819 Dartmouth v. Woodward decision, helped define and redefine the scope of government power over private enterprise. Judges and public officials gradually blurred the meaning of "public" and "private," contributing to the broader shift in how American governments have used private entities to accomplish public aims. As ever more policies today seek to unleash market forces in education, Americans would do well to learn from the historical relationship between government, markets, and schools.