{"product_id":"before-the-public-library-9789004348660","title":"Before the Public Library","description":"\u003ci\u003eBefore the Public Library\u003c\/i\u003e explores the emergence of community-based lending libraries in the Atlantic World before the advent of the Public Library movement in the mid-nineteenth century. Essays by eighteen scholars from a range of disciplines seek to place, for the first time, community libraries within an Atlantic context over a two-century period. Taking a comparative approach, this volume shows that community libraries played an important – and largely unrecognized – role in shaping Atlantic social networks, political and religious movements, scientific and geographic knowledge, and economic enterprise. Libraries had a distinct role to play in shaping modern identities through the acquisition and circulation of specific kinds of texts, the fostering of sociability, and the building of community-based institutions.","brand":"Mark Towsey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48309272314107,"sku":"9789004348660","price":191.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9789004348660.jpg?v=1772491276","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/before-the-public-library-9789004348660","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}