Removable Type - by Phillip H Round (Paperback)

About the Book

Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indian Country, 1663-1880

Book Synopsis

In 1663, the Puritan missionary John Eliot, with the help of a Nipmuck convert whom the English called James Printer, produced the first Bible printed in North America. It was printed not in English but in Algonquian, making it one of the first books printed in a Native language. In this ambitious and multidisciplinary work, Phillip Round examines the relationship between Native Americans and printed books over a two-hundred-year period, uncovering the individual, communal, regional, and political contexts for Native peoples' use of the printed word. From the northeastern woodlands to the Great Plains, Round argues, alphabetic literacy and printed books mattered greatly in the emergent, transitional cultural formations of indigenous nations threatened by European imperialism.

Removable Type showcases the varied ways that Native peoples produced and utilized printed texts over time, approaching them as both opportunity and threat. Surveying this rich history, Round addresses such issues as the role of white missionaries and Christian texts in the dissemination of print culture in Indian Country, the establishment of "national" publishing houses by tribes, the production and consumption of bilingual texts, the importance of copyright in establishing Native intellectual sovereignty (and the sometimes corrosive effects of reprinting thereon), and the significance of illustrations.

Review Quotes

"A landmark study that presents a new genealogy of early American book history, one in which American Indians secured intellectual sovereignty and constitutional rights by scripting indigenous sign systems into the printed world." -- Modern Philology

"Explores how native peoples came to adopt a European weapon, namely the printed word, as both a means to defend themselves from the actions of the United States and as a way to preserve their culture. . . . Highly recommended." -- Library Journal

"Round's important study demonstrates and confirms that Native Americans had an intellectual interest in European alphabetic literacy from very early in the colonial relationship. . . . Well researched and effectively presented. . . . Recommended." -- CHOICE