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Feature
Books that Changed America
Have you ever stayed up all night reading a book you just couldn't put down? Felt unreasonably annoyed when a well- meaning friend interrupts your reading time? Found that a book that you've read changed your mind and challenged you to change the world you live in?
If this sounds familiar, Dr. Michael Winship, the Iris Howard Regents Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin, says you're not alone.
Books always have captured the imagination of readers, inspired reforms and revolutions, changed hearts and minds and altered people's lives. Nearly 600 years after the invention of printing from moveable type, books continue to stir passions and incite controversy.
A bibliographer and book historian, Winship can't remember a time when he wasn't surrounded by books. As an undergraduate at Harvard College, Winship repaired rare books in the special collections library. After graduation in the early 1970s, he continued to work as a bookbinder before discovering he was more interested in the contents of books than their construction.
Today, Winship researches publishing and the book trade in America and teaches courses on "The American Bestseller." He recently edited the third volume of "A History of the Book in America" (University of North Carolina Press, 2007) series, titled "The Industrial Book, 1840-1880," which focuses on a period that dramatically changed the publishing industry and how Americans read books.