Magazines and the Making of America

"In this exciting new study of antebellum American magazines, Heather Haveman combines a polished narrative with quantitative data to argue persuasively that periodicals have been underappreciated but vital to the nation's literary and political culture. This book is one of the most significant investigations into American magazines since Frank Luther Mott's multivolume history several decades ago."--Jonathan Daniel Wells, University of Michigan"Heather Haveman has created a comprehensive, rigorous, and profound explanation for the rise of American magazines. Her lucid, impressive research will prove invaluable to historians and sociologists while also engaging the interest of today's journalists."--Daniel Walker Howe, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning What Hath God Wrought"This superbly documented portrait of the magazine industry from 1741 to 1860 provides a window into the process by which organizations emerge and transform American society. Heather Haveman is a skilled investigator who commands sophisticated social science tools, possesses deep historical knowledge, and has a gift for words, and she shows that magazines can be instruments of both social change and social control. I highly recommend this book."--Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina"This book is a marvel of scholarship that marries organization theory with the history of magazines and publishing in America. It is a riveting account of how newspapers and magazines powered the social transformation of American life. Beckoning cultural historians and organization theorists alike, it is a must-read for both groups."--Hayagreeva Rao, Stanford University"The place of magazines in the early American republic has long been one of media history's major lacunas. Haveman's book makes remarkable strides toward filling this void by documenting the indispensable work that magazines performed in building ties through which many Americans became enmeshed in national causes. Haveman offers a fresh interpretation of American print culture and the making of modernity."--Richard K. Popp, author of The Holiday Makers: Magazines, Advertising, and Mass Tourism in Postwar America"By masterfully uncovering the mechanisms that explain how magazines facilitated translocal communities and the typology of American modernization, Haveman has written a landmark achievement. Magazines and the Making of America is a breakthrough in our understanding of the dynamic relationships between organizations, institutions, and society. Indeed, I am already citing this book in my own work."--Damon J. Phillips, author of Shaping Jazz"Tracing founders, geographic locations, content, and relationships to major social movements, this book uncovers the largely forgotten history of magazines in the United States, from their origins in 1741 until the beginning of the Civil War. This definitive account explores the impact that this cultural medium had on the integration of America, and its close association with the religious, economic, and social fault lines that we continue to grapple with today."--Martin Ruef, Duke University