Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T14:41:00.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confronting the modern city: the Manchester Free Public Library, 1850–80

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2000

Martin Hewitt
Affiliation:
Dept of History, Trinity and All Saints, Leeds, LS18 5HD

Abstract

This article calls for greater attention within urban history to the ‘civic economy of the book’. By means of a case study of the Manchester Free Public Library and its context, examining the internal workings of the library system and its impact on the broader cultural life of the city, it is argued that the nineteenth-century public library, if not an especially successful disciplinary institution, may yet have been a significant mechanism of cultural disempowerment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)