The State of the Humanities and Scholarly Publishing to 2000

The first book printed in the United States was The Bay Psalm Book in 1640. The first scholarly journal was published in Europe in 1665. In England, there were university presses at Oxford (1478) and Cambridge (1534) before there were learned societies. The opposite was the case in the United States. The first university press was created only in 1869 at Cornell UniversityCornell University, and this press closed operations after a few years. The next university press was at Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University. Eventually, other university presses were launched publishing humanities booksHumanities books. By the mid-twentieth century, commercial scholarly pressesCommercial scholarly presses challenged the preeminent position of university presses in humanities publishing. This chapter analyzed the creation of societies, and the growth and perils university presses confronted.