John B. Thompson 
Books in the Digital Age 
The Transformation of Academic and Higher Education Publishing in Britain and the United States

The book publishing industry is going through a period of profound
and turbulent change brought about in part by the digital
revolution. What is the role of the book in an age preoccupied with
computers and the internet? How has the book publishing industry
been transformed by the economic and technological upheavals of
recent years, and how is it likely to change in the future?

This is the first major study of the book publishing industry in
Britain and the United States for more than two decades. Thompson
focuses on academic and higher education publishing and analyses
the evolution of these sectors from 1980 to the present. He shows
that each sector is characterized by its own distinctive
‘logic’ or dynamic of change, and that by
reconstructing this logic we can understand the problems,
challenges and opportunities faced by publishing firms today. He
also shows that the digital revolution has had, and continues to
have, a profound impact on the book publishing business, although
the real impact of this revolution has little to do with the ebook
scenarios imagined by many commentators.

Books in the Digital Age will become a standard work on the
publishing industry at the beginning of the 21st century. It will
be of great interest to students taking courses in the sociology of
culture, media and cultural studies, and publishing. It will also
be of great value to professionals in the publishing industry,
educators and policy makers, and to anyone interested in books and
their future.

Table of Content

List of figures and tables.

Preface.

Introduction.

Part I The Publishing Business.

Publishing as an economic and cultural practice.

The social structure of publishing fields.

The publishing field since 1980.

Part II The Field of Academic Publishing.

Academic publishing under pressure.

Academic publishing in transition (1): changing organizational
cultures.

Academic publishing in transition (2): list diversification and
field migration.

Academic publishing at the crossroads.

Part III The Field of Higher Education Publishing.

Higher education publishing in the US (1): the formation of the
field.

Higher education publishing in the US (2): the differentiation
of the field.

Higher education publishing in the UK.

Globalization and localization in the UK field of higher
education publishing.

Part IV The Digital Revolution.

The digital revolution and the publishing world.

Academic publishing and the digital revolution.

Higher education publishing and the digital revolution.

The hidden revolution: reinventing the life cycle of the
book.

Conclusion.

Appendix on research methods.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the author

John Thompson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.