Bookshops in London [ Cities / Trade ]
… such as coffee-houses, taverns, markets and many cultural institutions (clubs, libraries, antiquarian circles). Most printers and booksellers were amphibious businessmen, whose prosperity depended on their ability to liaise with customers … at the crossroads between different social scenes and backgrounds. In the last decades, the contribution of London printers and booksellers to eighteenth-century spheres of sociability has been mapped out by many book historians and … Borsay, namely that ‘the promotion of sociability sits rather uneasily alongside that other great preoccupation of urban culture, the pursuit of status. Whereas one sought to unify society, the other encouraged fragmentation. The two motives …
Books | Commerce | Reading
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