Hardback : $145.00
Revolutions from Grub Street charts the evolution of Britain's popular magazine industry from its seventeenth century origins through to the modern digital age. Following the reforms engendered by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the Grub Street area of London, which later transmuted into the cluster of venerable publishing houses centred on Fleet Street, spawned a vibrant culture of commercial writers and small-scale printing houses. Exploiting the
commercial potential offered by improvements to the system of letterpress printing, and allied to a growing demand for popular forms of reading matter, during the course of the eighteenth century one of Britain's
pioneering cultural industries began to take meaningful shape. Publishers of penny weeklies and sixpenny monthlies sought to capitalise on the opportunities that magazines, combining lively text with appealing illustrations, offered for the turning of a profit. The technological revolutions of the nineteenth century facilitated the emergence of a host of small and medium-sized printer-publishers whose magazine titles found a willing and growing audience ranging from Britain's semi-literate
working classes through to its fashion-conscious ladies. In 1881, the launch of George Newnes' highly innovative Tit-Bits magazine created a publishing sensation, ushering in the era
of the modern, million-selling popular weekly. Newnes and his early collaborators Arthur Pearson and Alfred Harmsworth, went on to create a group of competing business enterprises that, during the twentieth century, emerged as colossal publishing houses employing thousands of mainly trade union-regulated workers. In the early 1960s these firms, together with Odhams Press, merged to create the basis of the modern magazine giant IPC. Practically a monopoly producer until the 1980s, IPC was
convulsed thereafter by the dual revolutions of globalization and digitization, finding its magazines under commercial attack from all directions. Challenged first by EMAP, Natmags, and Condé Nast, by the
1990s IPC faced competition both from expanding European rivals, such as H. Bauer, and a variety of newly-formed agile domestic competitors who were able to successfully exploit the opportunities presented by desktop publishing and the world wide web. In a narrative spanning over 300 years, Revolutions from Grub Street draws together a wide range of new and existing sources to provide the first comprehensive business history of magazine-making in Britain.
Revolutions from Grub Street charts the evolution of Britain's popular magazine industry from its seventeenth century origins through to the modern digital age. Following the reforms engendered by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the Grub Street area of London, which later transmuted into the cluster of venerable publishing houses centred on Fleet Street, spawned a vibrant culture of commercial writers and small-scale printing houses. Exploiting the
commercial potential offered by improvements to the system of letterpress printing, and allied to a growing demand for popular forms of reading matter, during the course of the eighteenth century one of Britain's
pioneering cultural industries began to take meaningful shape. Publishers of penny weeklies and sixpenny monthlies sought to capitalise on the opportunities that magazines, combining lively text with appealing illustrations, offered for the turning of a profit. The technological revolutions of the nineteenth century facilitated the emergence of a host of small and medium-sized printer-publishers whose magazine titles found a willing and growing audience ranging from Britain's semi-literate
working classes through to its fashion-conscious ladies. In 1881, the launch of George Newnes' highly innovative Tit-Bits magazine created a publishing sensation, ushering in the era
of the modern, million-selling popular weekly. Newnes and his early collaborators Arthur Pearson and Alfred Harmsworth, went on to create a group of competing business enterprises that, during the twentieth century, emerged as colossal publishing houses employing thousands of mainly trade union-regulated workers. In the early 1960s these firms, together with Odhams Press, merged to create the basis of the modern magazine giant IPC. Practically a monopoly producer until the 1980s, IPC was
convulsed thereafter by the dual revolutions of globalization and digitization, finding its magazines under commercial attack from all directions. Challenged first by EMAP, Natmags, and Condé Nast, by the
1990s IPC faced competition both from expanding European rivals, such as H. Bauer, and a variety of newly-formed agile domestic competitors who were able to successfully exploit the opportunities presented by desktop publishing and the world wide web. In a narrative spanning over 300 years, Revolutions from Grub Street draws together a wide range of new and existing sources to provide the first comprehensive business history of magazine-making in Britain.
Introduction
1: A Small but Expanding Market
2: Feeding the Popular Demand
3: From Mass Periodicals to Mass Production
4: The Dominant Female
5: Monopoly, Power, and Politics
6: The Ministry of Magazines
7: Breaking into the IPC Citadel
8: The Global Magazine in the Digital Age
Howard Cox is Professor of International Business History at the
University of Worcester, UK, where he has taught since 2004, During
an academic career spanning over thirty years he has published
widely in the fields of business history, international business,
and corporate strategy. His well received account of the
international tobacco industry The Global Cigarette was also
published by Oxford University Press in 2000.
Simon Mowatt is Head of International Business at Auckland
University of Technology Business School, New Zealand, where he is
Associate Professor of Management and Leader of the Business and
Labour History Group. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Centre
for International Business History, Henley Business School, UK, and
held positions in Business Schools in the UK and Europe. Simon has
published widely in the areas of business history, strategy, and
innovation.
`Extremely well-researched, well-written, and sobering account ...
the book is excellent and will appeal to a wide audience
'
Business History Review
`Cox moves easily between epochs, cultures and countries, while the
archival, often foreign, and other research on which the book rests
is truly formidable
'
Kenneth D. Brown, Contemporary British History
`a nicely produced text and copious relevant illustrations. The
result is not only an excellent example of high quality economic
history but also an outstanding example of the historian's
skill
'
Kenneth Brown, Contemporary British History
`Cox does not claim to be offering a standard company history.
Rather, his stated intention is to use the history of BAT as an
early illustration of the process of manufacturing
internationalisation. This he achieves quite superbly. His control
of a mass of detailed information is sure and the narrative never
loses the reader's attention, even in the midst of the most
intricate corporate negotiations. The writing is tight and always
controlled
'
Kenneth D. Brown, Contemporary British History
`Howard Cox has provided a meticulously researched and definitive
account of BAT's global development in marketing, distribution and
manufacturing in the first half of the twentieth century ... the
book will certainly be the authoritative history of the firm for
years to come. Cox is to be praised for providing an excellent case
study which will provide a benchmark for other historians of
multinational enterprise
'
Matthew Hilton, Business History, Vol.43, No.2, April 2001
`Howard Cox's lucid account of the history of British American
Tobacco provides a valuable corporate history and some insight into
the way in which the cigarette assumed global significance
'
Rosemary Elliot, THES, Nov 17, 00.
`Cox shows a sophisticated understanding of how political and
economic circumstances across the world shaped events on the ground
and the corporate vision.
'
Rosemary Elliot, THES, Nov 17, 00.
`The strength of Cox's book lies in its exposition of the growth of
a ground-breaking, scientifically managed, multinational company
and in his integration of the personal and the political at the
corporate, national and international levels
'
Rosemary Elliot, THES, Nov 17, 00.
`a worthwhile addition to academic and research library
collections
'
A.P. O'Brien, CHOICE Dec. 2000. Vol.38, No.4.
`Authoritative account... many interesting details... some splendid
photographs.
'
TLS, September 22 2000
`Howard Cox's trawl of BAT's archives and the trade press provides
an authoritative account of this unusual and prosperous British
multinational. He provides many interesting details . . . and
reproduces some splendid photographs. . . . makes available
archival material that will help researchers interested in such
matters. There is thought-provoking information - presented in a
fair but perhaps necessarily anodyne manner - on BAT's activities
in the Indian
adn Chinese markets
'
TLS, September 22 2000
`Howard Cox's lucid account of the history of British American
Tobacco provides a valuable corporate history and some insight into
the way in which the cigarette assumed global significance. ... The
story Cox tells is the quintessential story of the corporate
American dream. ... Cox shows a sophisticated understanding of how
political and economic circumstances across the world shaped events
on the ground and the corporate vision. ... Cox keeps his
reader
abreast of relevant political developments while providing a
coherent picture of the evolving management network. ... The
strength of Cox's book lies in its exposition of the growth of a
ground-breaking,
scientifically managed, multinational company and in his
integration of the personal and the political at the corporate,
national and international levels
'
Rosemary Elliot, THES
`It is researched in great detail and well illustrated; the photos
of the Indian and Chinese markets are fascinating
'
Social History of Medicine
`Of particular interest is the book's detailed study of the role of
BAT in the Indian and Chinese markets in the early part of the
twentieth century
'
Social History of Medicine
`Extremely well-researched, well-written, and sobering account ...
the book is excellent and will appeal to a wide audience
'
Business History Review
`'Authoritative account... many interesting details... some
splendid photographs
'
Times Literary Supplement
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