The process of industrialisation that got underway in the 19th century affected every area of the economy and society. Books and other print media like journals and newspapers were important means of information and sources of entertainment for the rapidly growing and relatively young population. New technologies in paper manufacturing, illustration and printing served the growing market, which was closely networked thanks to the railway, telegraph lines and postal organisations. Serialised novels, conversational lexicons and a wealth of educational literature, together with an increasing number of diverse scientific books and journals expanded the spectrum of publications available. Our A–Z of Industrialisation gives a clearer picture of the relationship between these complex developments.
The A-Z set up as a game: The alphabetic entries contain numerous cross references to other texts in this module thus highlighting their close relations to one another. The texts are of a networked character in a similar way to the conversational lexicons which were popular in Germany in the 19th century and whose cross references anticipated today’s hypertext links.
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German Museum of Books and Writing "Signs - Books - Networks"