This paper considers the prospect of a “critical book history” that blends critical theory with studies of the book as a material and cultural object. This concept parallels similar efforts in the digital humanities for a critically engaged digital practice, as explored in a 2018 American Quarterly special issue, the #transformdh movement, and Deb…[Read more]

This article revisits the under-appreciated connection between John Dunton and Daniel Defoe in the context of their epistolary periodicals, the Athenian Mercury and the Review. While the wide-scale use of reader letters in early periodicals has been acknowledged if not fully appreciated in contemporary scholarship, each author devoted copious…[Read more]