Synopses & Reviews
The story of the British and Foreign Bible Society - a publisher and Victorian social institution.
Review
"Leslie Howsam's Cheap Bibles is by far the most impressive... Cheap Bibles is no less than a definitive study of the British and Foreign Bible Society from its founding in 1804 to the 1860s. This is a gleaming example of imaginative, critically-aware bibliography." The Wordsworth Circle"This carefully constructed and elegantly documented book is an impressive contribution to the general cultural history of Britain in the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century." History of Education Quarterly"This book is greatly to be welcomed and will prove to be of value not only to historians of publishing, but to all of those concerned with the history of early nineteenth-century Britain." The Library Quarterly"Howsam's book is an important resource to researchers in the social, cultural, printing, and publishing history of the period." Victorian Studies
Synopsis
This is a study of the publishing programme of the British and Foreign Bible Society between 1804 and 1864. It shows that the Societyâs demand for Bibles, generated by the development of Bible distribution as a popular evangelical crusade, placed significant pressure on the contemporary book trades. Earlier historians have regarded the BFBS solely as a religious phenomenon, but this is to ignore the way the Society refused to engage in theological debate and expended most of its funds on Bible manufacture: it was simultaneously a publisher and a Victorian social institution.
Synopsis
The cheap Bibles of nineteenth-century Britain were potent symbols of national virtue. This book, based on correspondence and other archival records, tells the story of the British and Foreign Bible Society from two perspectives: its place in the history of publishing and printing and in contemporary society.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 240) and index.
Table of Contents
Preface; Sources and acknowledgments; 1. Saints in publishing; 2. A Bible translation, 1804 1840; 3. The BFBS and English printers, 1804 1864; 4. The BFBS and London bookbinders, 1811 1864; 5. The BFBS and bookselling, 1804 1864; 6. The transaction renewed, 1850s and 60s; Epilogue; Appendix; Select book list; Notes.