This volume is part of Decentring the History of Reading, a two-volume project that rethinks the history of reading from a Central European perspective. Focusing on sources and contexts often overlooked in Western European models, the case studies show how reading practices developed in a multilingual, politically contested, and institutionally regulated environment. Covering the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, the contributions in the first volume explore readers’ engagement with print amid Enlightenment reforms, confessional tensions, emerging national movements, and the rise of the working class.

A case-study approach highlights the diversity of reading practices across social groups, linguistic communities, and institutional settings. Particular attention is given to the interplay between cultural policies and movements—education, censorship, nation-building—and everyday reading. Under conditions of limited access and shifting hierarchies, reading emerges as a practice of negotiation, appropriation, social engagement and participation. The volume offers fresh perspectives on the formation of modern reading cultures and will interest scholars of book history, literary and cultural studies, and the social life of texts. 

Michael Wögerbauer (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) researches literary communication in multilingual Central Europe.

Claire Madl (CEFRES, CNRS, Prague) studies the social practices of reading, writing, and publishing.

Jiřina Šmejkalová (Charles University, Prague) specialises in Cold War book history.