Upon What Pretext?: The Book and Literary History.

Examines the role of the book in the colonial and early national periods. Religion was a central feature of early American life. Because of this, Puritan books were aimed at the society's general oral culture, not merely at a literary culture. Authors assumed their readers shared their ideology, not that they had to shape the readers' thinking and culture. By the time of Benjamin Franklin a literary culture was emerging, and Franklin addressed himself to it. Authors now diffused information rather than confirmed beliefs. In the early 19th century literary culture became politicized.