Lunchtime Lecture: The Bristol Library Society

The Bristol Library Society: Reading, Self-Improvement and Library Culture in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Professor Mark Towsey, Head of History Department, University of Liverpool

Reading became increasingly popular in the 1700s to a wider range of people than ever before. Long the preserve of the aristocratic and religious elites, reading came to be seen as a vital source of entertainment, self-improvement and social mobility - as well as a vehicle for radical political change. Yet books were still extremely expensive, and most would-be readers relied on borrowing books rather than owning them.

To accompany our exhibition on the Bristol Library Society of the 1770s, this talk looks at library provision in the eighteenth century and what library records can tell us about this pivotal moment in the development of the modern world.

Host or Publisher Bristol Libraries