For the first time since its invention over 500 years ago, the print medium is being challenged as the primary means of recording and communicating ideas. 'Duffy has produced a book of painstaking research, with a remarkable breadth, combining business, labour and social history in fine style.' Business History '... a very useful and convincing study. Both compositors and historians have been well-served.' Albion '... whatever your specialty, you have several good reasons to read Patrick Duffy's study of nineteenth-century compositors... an exceptionally detailed empirical study...' Victorian Studies 'A welcome study of the economic and social identity of British compositors in the second half of the nineteenth century, Duffy's book provides a detailed and sympathetic survey of the workplace experiences of this segment of the printing industry.' Journal of the Printing Historical Society