Choice Review

This book is a fascinating cross-sectional study of the emergence of metropolitan Sunday newspaper issues during the late 19th century. Moore (sociology, Toronto Metropolitan Univ., Canada) and Gabriele (communication studies, Concordia Univ., Canada) excellently and deeply examine appeal, technical matters, the development of magazine inserts, supplements, and delivery, setting these newspapers within the context of American leisure and business practices. Treating "the Sunday paper as a medium in its own right," the book presents these papers as a lens through which to study the emergence of modernity (p. 4). While acknowledging the irony of studying this medium in the present when the form is expiring rapidly, the authors conclude that Sunday newspapers successfully met the interests of readers at the time they emerged. Conversely, they contend that "the newspaper form has withered because it can no longer fulfill even its own desires" for currency and relevance in the face of new media (p. 142). As a historical study, this book is essential for communication collections and for anyone looking at book or literacy history of the period, though its very specialty means it may be less relevant for general undergraduate collections, which is a pity. Summing Up: Essential. General readers and advanced undergraduates through faculty. --Richard L Saunders, Southern Utah University