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Robert E. Brown, Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America (Print Culture History in Modern America). Edited by Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 78, Issue 4, December 2010, Pages 1200–1203, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfq069
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In an increasingly digital and paperless age, it is helpful to be reminded of the importance of print culture in modern life, not only as a historical phenomenon, but also an ongoing medium of communication. Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America, edited by Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, does just that, illuminating the wide-ranging and intricate means by which print has been insinuated into the dynamics of American religion.
The volume is composed of fourteen papers presented at a 2004 conference held at the University of Wisconsin's Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America (several of which have appeared previously in journals). An eclectic, at times uneven, but ultimately informative collection, the essays provide exemplary micro-studies of the relationship between print and religion, rather than a comprehensive or systematic treatment of the issues and the era. While it is not too surprising to find that most are treatments of Protestantism, other traditions are represented, including Judaism, Mormonism, and the New Age Movement (Catholicism, as the editors note, being a glaring omission). Within that Protestant emphasis a diversity of subcultures appear, including fundamentalist, evangelical, millenarian, mainline, charismatic, and Quaker. What is perhaps most instructive about the collection is the range of subject matter and print materials considered, demonstrating the utility of print culture as an effective means for addressing the problems of religion in the modern world.
