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December 06, 2006
Crisis of...something.
John Wilson got me all interested in his "book of the year" over at Books and Culture:
And now to the Book of the Year: Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, by Timothy Larsen (Oxford Univ. Press). You know the familiar story, according to which virtually every thinking person in late-Victorian England either lost his faith or maintained a pale simulacrum of genuine belief. While Timothy Larsen acknowledges that there were of course plenty of instances of deconversion, in his new book he draws attention to a counternarrative that has been widely overlooked, embodied in the experience of men and women who moved from doubt or resolute skepticism to Christian faith. In chapter after chapter of brilliantly condensed biography, he tells the stories of individuals whose lives followed this second course. This is a book that will force honest scholars to reconsider what they thought they knew.
Awesome. Clicked on the link.
$110!
Clicked on the UK Amazon site, thinking...must be a mistake. Nope. - £ 60!
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Ouch! And it sounds just like something I'd read too. This seems to be a persuade your local library to buy it operation.
Posted by: Zadok the Roman at Dec 6, 2006 10:08:48 AM
Do you have a good interlibrary loan system in your state that can snag the book from a university library for a few weeks?
Posted by: Kevin Jones at Dec 6, 2006 10:29:12 AM
Welcome to my life. That's the typical pricing for academic press books (and part of why it's so hard to get a book PUBLISHED - b/c they have to charge so much for them that they have to be sure that someone will want to buy them).
Posted by: Michael Tinkler at Dec 6, 2006 10:55:43 AM
I'm curious about the title. Why the qualifier of "honest" faith? (Was there dishonest faith?)
This crisis is presented as demonstrating the intellectual weakness of Christianity as it was assaulted by new lines of thought such as Darwinism and biblical criticism.
This is precisely the dominant narrative in secular universities, even at the graduate level. Kudos to Larsen for joining the growing ranks of scholars disputing this breezy and condescending "Whig thesis" of Western history.
Posted by: Pes at Dec 6, 2006 11:58:22 AM
Someone, years ago - it may have been the chap who sued Oxford University Press over not publishing his book - mentioned the reasons behind the rather inflated prices of OUP (and Cambridge, Athlone etc.) Apparently it was a rational decision by these publishers that, given their market was almost exclusively universites who, at that point in time anyway had a sizeable amount of money put by to purchase new book stock, they could double or treble the price of the books and the sales wouldn't overly suffer. Eliminated would be the private scholar of course, but, if the book proved popular enough and after a wait of a few years, it could be put in paperback for a more reasonable cost. Cynical, yes ... especially given that Oxford - who operate as a charity (!) - make a fair amount worldwide from their World's Classics series (and have done for over fifty years). American University Presses never seemed to follow this track. Yes, their books can sometimes be expensive, but no where near the amount that OUP charge. Compounding the annoyance is the quality of Oxford hardbacks these days ... look at an old Clarendon press title: binding, printing, paper quality and typesetting are all to a high standard. The prices were expensive, but reasonable (given the small readership). The quality now, on the other hand, is poor ... and the price excessive.
Posted by: Aumgn at Dec 6, 2006 1:24:03 PM
But there are other books on Wilson's list--even from University presses--not anywhere near as expensive yet very much worth reading :)
Posted by: Little Gidding at Dec 6, 2006 1:44:21 PM
On the one hand, OUP books are expensive;
on the other hand, they tend to last forever,
and you can usually find good deals at used book stores around universities.
Some big, expensive OUP books in my personal library:
- Liddell's Greek Lexicon ($150.00 new)
- Latin Dictionary ($200.00 new)
"Crisis of Doubt," at 330 pages (over 30 cents a page), a rather narrow historical study, is probably not a book I would buy new. I would suggest waiting for used copies to show up around universities.
OUP says the readership is: "Scholars and students of Church history and the history of religious scepticism; of historical theology, intellectual history, social history; and of Victorian studies, including Victorian literature."
Seven of the 10 chapters address individuals:
2. William Hone
3. Frederic Rowland Young
4. Thomas Cooper
5. John Henry Gordon
6. Joseph Barker
7. John Bagnall Bebbington
8. George Sexton
See Larsen's May 2005 note in Christianity Today / Christian History.
See also his paper in "Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture,". Vol. 70, No. 3, September 2001, which covers Thomas Cooper, Joseph Barker, JH Gordon, etc.
Posted by: Old Zhou at Dec 6, 2006 2:28:33 PM
Oxford at least has mark-down sales and sells remainders. Cambridge is the impossibly pricey one. I buy more from Yale and Princeton than from Oxford and they, too, have annual sales. Get to know the appropriate remaindered book catalogs. (David Brown is excellent for academic books.)
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Dec 6, 2006 5:44:50 PM
But Sandra,
Don't you think that there is at least one excellent value in the rest of Wilson's list? And that it would make a wonderful Christmas gift for almost anyone?
Posted by: Little Gidding at Dec 6, 2006 5:59:42 PM
I was just addressing the price issue, not the listed books themselves. It wrings my heart to pay full price for a book so I hunt for bargains with beady eye.
As for the 10 Best, I can heartily recommend THE REMARABLE LIFE OF JOHN MURRAY SPEAR. It's a witty examination of a truly bizarre subject. By the way, Spiritualism has been getting a lot of attention lately in academic circles.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Dec 6, 2006 9:47:13 PM
E-Bay is the saving grace of the thrifty bibliophile. You have to be always on the lookout and be willing to walk away and not get caught up in a bidding frenzy, but many fairly expensive books with patience can be acquired over time at a fraction of the price. Then if the prize turns out to be not such a prize, it can always be resold on E-Bay.
Posted by: Donald R.McClarey at Dec 6, 2006 10:54:27 PM
