Faith in Reading : Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America

Faith in Reading tells the remarkable story of the unlikely origins of our modern media culture. In the early nineteenth century, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch a true mass media in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses but nonprofit religious organizations. These organizations believed it was possible - through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God - to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Determined to combat ignorance, apathy, and infidelity with the written word, these organizations ended up giving birth to the American mass media.