The Bookshop
A History of Bookselling From the Dawn of Print to the 21st Century
Will be published approx. on 17. September 2026
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-80522-437-2 (ISBN)
Description
Bookshops are a comforting sight on our high streets, warm and welcoming spaces in which to browse, meet friends and occasionally buy books. They may feel timeless, yet their history is a restless and turbulent one, filled with as many entrepreneurial street hawkers and illicit trades as with beloved institutions.
The Bookshop, from the celebrated author of The Library and The Book at War, explores the evolution of bookselling from the cramped collectors' shops frequented by Samuel Pepys to the radical feminist bookshops of the 70s, the rise of monolithic chains and the new world of online selling. Connecting stories and lives that span centuries, countries and continents, The Bookshop brings us into beloved bookshops of today and looks forward to the possible experience of booksellers of tomorrow.
The Bookshop, from the celebrated author of The Library and The Book at War, explores the evolution of bookselling from the cramped collectors' shops frequented by Samuel Pepys to the radical feminist bookshops of the 70s, the rise of monolithic chains and the new world of online selling. Connecting stories and lives that span centuries, countries and continents, The Bookshop brings us into beloved bookshops of today and looks forward to the possible experience of booksellers of tomorrow.
Reviews / Votes
Stylish, authoritative and full of telling anecdotes. Andrew Pettegree is the ideal guide through half a millennium of selling books -- Dennis Duncan, author of INDEX, A HISTORY OF THE An absorbing and thorough history of the book trade whose shaky livelihoods have, for nearly 600 years, been at the mercy of the fickle vagaries of changing winds ... Scholarly and engaging -- Shaun Bythell, author of THE DIARY OF A BOOKSELLER At last, a history of the bookshop which paints the big picture. Every chapter of Pettegree's kaleidoscopic account has enough stories, characters and statistics to satisfy even the most curious bibliomaniac. -- Roly Allen, author of THE NOTEBOOK PRAISE FOR THE LIBRARY:'Outstanding ... fetchingly produced and scrupulously researched - a perfect gift for bibliophiles everywhere -- Professor John Carey * Sunday Times * In this superb history, the authors tell the rich and varied history of libraries, from those that aspire to collect the sum of human knowledge to modest but valued personal collections * Guardian * PRAISE FOR THE BOOK AT WAR:
'Rich, authoritative, and highly readable ... [a] tour de force' -- David Kynaston
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
8pp colour plates
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80522-437-2 (9781805224372)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Andrew Pettegree, FBA, is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Book at War, the prize-winning The Book in the Renaissance and co-author of The Library: A Fragile History. He is a former Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and founding director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue.