Antebellum Literary Culture and the Evolution of American Magazines

I chronicle the American magazine industry from its inception in 1741 to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 and explain how the industry came to take on a form that, in large part, persists to the present day. My analysis highlights the cultural factors that shaped magazines: on the supply side, the social construction of a market-based conception of authorship and a supporting legal framework that regulated literary property rights and, on the demand side, the growth of large, differentiated audiences for religious treatises and for many forms of secular literature. Finally, my analysis reveals how magazines influenced American society: Magazines fostered religious pluralism and, indirectly, helped institutionalize sectarian divisions; they also supported American literature, providing visible outlets and economic security for many authors.