Ted Striphas' book, The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture From Consumerism to Control (Columbia University Press, 2009) questions the widely-held belief that the medium of books and the practice of book reading are in a profound state of crisis today. Through a series of lively critical histories focusing on key aspects of contemporary book culture, Ted Striphas explores how books remain vital social artifacts in and of our time. From ebooks, book superstores, and online bookselling to Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and the Harry Potter series, Striphas shows how books inhabit new communication infrastructures, mediate cultural differences, trouble longstanding legal and economic relations, and help to shape broader practices of everyday life. In doing so, The Late Age of Print examines the pivotal role books played in making a modern, connected consumer culture in the 20th century, and how, today, they remain at the forefront of consumer culture’s transformation into a “society of controlled consumption.”

He is co-editor (with Gregory J. Shepherd and Jeffrey St. John) of Communication As...: Perspectives on Theory (Sage, 2006) and of a recent special issue of the journal Cultural Studies (with Kembrew McLeod) on the politics of intellectual properties. His work has appeared in, among other journals: Critical Studies in Media Communication; Cultural Studies; The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies; Social Epistemology; and Television and New Media.

His primary research interest areas include: media history, theory, and criticism; cultural studies; media industries and institutions; and the philosophy of communication and culture.