- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- A Note on Money
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 W. & R. Chambers and the Market for Print
- I Organizing a Proper System of Publishing
- 2 Industrial Book Production
- 3 Reaching a National Market
- 4 Production and Steam Power
- 5 New Formats for Information
- 6 Reaching an Overseas Market
- 7 A Modern Printing Establishment
- II Railways and Competition
- 8 The Coming of the Railways
- 9 Centralizing Business in Edinburgh
- 10 Routledge and the New Competition
- 11 Railway Bookstalls
- 12 Instruction in the Railway Marketplace
- 13 The Dignitaries of the Trade Take on Routledge
- III Steamships and Transatlantic Business
- 14 Transatlantic Opportunities
- 15 Getting to Know the American Market
- 16 The Dissemination of Cheap Instruction
- 17 A New Spirit of Engagement
- 18 Building Relationships with Boston and Philadelphia
- 19 Piracy and Shipwreck!
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Instruction in the Railway Marketplace
Instruction in the Railway Marketplace
- Chapter:
- (p.147) 12 Instruction in the Railway Marketplace
- Source:
- Steam-Powered Knowledge
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
This chapter discusses instruction in the railway marketplace. Railway bookstalls would mark the final coming-of-age of efforts to promote popular education. Samuel Phillips's optimism about the railway's role in popular education came from his discovery that “working men generally and some country people” were good customers for “cheap and useful” books. The entire book trade was put under strain during the economic depression of late 1847 and 1848. W. & R. Chambers were not immune to the new competition, and it occurred in the midst of their worries about William Orr and the management of their London business. Both Charles Knight and the Chambers were wary of targeting their publications at the railway bookstalls. Unlike Knight and the SDUK, W. & R. Chambers survived the arrival of railway literature and shilling volumes. They had a sound business system and an efficient printing establishment.
Keywords: railway marketplace, railway bookstalls, popular education, book trade, economic depression, Chambers, William Orr, Charles Knight
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- A Note on Money
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 W. & R. Chambers and the Market for Print
- I Organizing a Proper System of Publishing
- 2 Industrial Book Production
- 3 Reaching a National Market
- 4 Production and Steam Power
- 5 New Formats for Information
- 6 Reaching an Overseas Market
- 7 A Modern Printing Establishment
- II Railways and Competition
- 8 The Coming of the Railways
- 9 Centralizing Business in Edinburgh
- 10 Routledge and the New Competition
- 11 Railway Bookstalls
- 12 Instruction in the Railway Marketplace
- 13 The Dignitaries of the Trade Take on Routledge
- III Steamships and Transatlantic Business
- 14 Transatlantic Opportunities
- 15 Getting to Know the American Market
- 16 The Dissemination of Cheap Instruction
- 17 A New Spirit of Engagement
- 18 Building Relationships with Boston and Philadelphia
- 19 Piracy and Shipwreck!
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
