In this magisterial history, Richard B. Sher breaks new ground for our understanding of the Enlightenment and the forgotten role of publishing during that period. "The Enlightenment and the Book" seeks to remedy the common misperception that such classics as "The Wealth of Nations" and "The Life of Samuel Johnson" were made by their authors alone. To the contrary, Sher shows how the process of bookmaking during the late eighteenth century involved complex partnerships between authors and their publishers. Similarly, Sher demonstrates that publishers were involved in the project of bookmaking for a variety of reasons, ranging from accumulating profits to advancing human knowledge.

理查德·B·谢尔，美国著名史学教授，新泽西理工学院联合历史学院主席。研究方向为启蒙运动、书籍史和印刷文化、知识分子史和文化史。主要著作有《格拉斯哥启蒙运动》（Tuckwell P ，1997年9月），《苏格兰启蒙运动中的教会与大学》（爱丁堡大学出版社，1990年9月）。