Description
Book SynopsisHenkin explores the influential but little-noticed role reading played in New York City's public life between 1825 and 1865. The "ubiquitous urban texts"--from newspapers to paper money, from street signs to handbills--became both indispensable urban guides and apt symbols for a new kind of public life that emerged first in New York.
Trade ReviewA strikingly original account of a new kind of literacy in mid-nineteenth century New York City. -- Konstantin Dierks Journal of the Early Republic
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Public Reading, Public Space Brick, Paper, and the Spectacle of Urban Growth: The Rise of a New Metropolis Commerical Impudence and the Dictatorship of the Perpendicular: Signs of the City Word on the Streets: Bills, Boards, and Banners Print in Public, Public in Print: The Rise of the Daily Paper Promiscuous Circulation: The Case of Paper Money Epilogue: Words of War
