Routledge facts for kids
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| Parent company | Taylor & Francis |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Founder | George Routledge |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK |
| Distribution | World wide |
| Key people | Jeremy North (MD Books) |
| Publication types | Books and academic journals |
| Nonfiction topics | Humanities, social science, behavioral science, education, law |
Routledge is a big British company that publishes books. It was started in 1836 by a man named George Routledge. This company is known for publishing special books, magazines (called journals), and online materials for students and experts. These materials cover subjects like history, literature, psychology, teaching, law, and how people behave in society.
Every year, Routledge publishes about 1,800 journals and 5,000 new books. They also have a huge collection of over 140,000 older titles. Many people say Routledge is the biggest publisher of academic books in the world, especially in the areas of humanities and social sciences.
In 1998, Routledge became part of a larger company called Taylor & Francis Group. This happened after another company bought Routledge for a lot of money. Later, in 2004, Taylor & Francis joined with another big company called Informa. Now, Routledge is a main part of Informa's "academic publishing" section. Routledge's main office is in England, but they also have offices in places like Philadelphia, Melbourne, New Delhi, Singapore, and Beijing.
Contents
History of Routledge
How it All Started
The company began in 1836. A bookseller from London, George Routledge, published a travel guide that didn't sell well. He worked with his brother-in-law, W. H. Warne.
In 1848, George and W. H. Warne found a new idea. They started selling cheap copies of popular stories to people traveling by train. This collection of books became very famous and was known as the "Railway Library."
Growing the Business
Because more and more people were using trains, the "Railway Library" became a big success. This led George Routledge, along with W. H. Warne's brother Frederick Warne, to officially start the company George Routledge & Co. in 1851.
A year later, in 1852, the company made a lot of money by selling copies of the famous book Uncle Tom's Cabin. This book was free to print in the UK. This success helped them pay a famous author, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a large sum of money. For 10 years, Routledge had the only right to print all 35 of his works, including 19 novels, as part of their cheap "Railway Library" series.
New Partners and Changes
In 1858, George Routledge's son, Robert Warne Routledge, joined the business. The company's name changed to Routledge, Warne & Routledge. Sadly, W. H. Warne passed away in 1859. His brother, Frederick Warne, then left the company. He started his own publishing company, Frederick Warne & Co., in 1865. This company later became famous for publishing the Beatrix Potter books. In 1865, another of George Routledge's sons, Edmund Routledge, became a partner, and the company became George Routledge & Sons.
Focusing on Academic Books
By 1899, the company was having financial problems. But after some changes in 1902, it got back on track. It started buying and joining with other publishing companies. For example, it took over Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. in 1912.
These new companies brought many important scholarly books with them. From 1912 onwards, Routledge started to focus more and more on publishing academic and scholarly works. In 1947, George Routledge and Sons officially joined with Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. The new company was called Routledge & Kegan Paul. This company became well-known for its books on philosophy, psychology, and social sciences.
Joining Bigger Groups
In 1985, Routledge & Kegan Paul joined with another company called Associated Book Publishers (ABP). This company was then bought by International Thomson in 1987. Even though it was part of a bigger group, Routledge kept its name and its work. It also added more books from other publishers.
In 1996, Routledge became an independent company again for a short time. But in 1998, it was bought by the Taylor & Francis Group. Routledge kept its name and continued to be a main part of Taylor & Francis.
In 2004, Taylor & Francis joined with another large company called Informa. Today, Routledge is still a very important part of Informa's academic publishing division. It continues to publish academic books, journals, and digital products in the humanities and social sciences. Routledge has grown a lot by adding books from other publishers. When Taylor & Francis buys books from other publishers in these subjects, they often put the Routledge name on them.
Routledge also cares about the environment. They have signed an agreement called the SDG Publishers Compact to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, their print books and journals are certified as CarbonNeutral®, which means they try to have no negative impact on the environment.
People Who Worked at Routledge
Many interesting people have worked at Routledge. Fredric Warburg, a famous English publisher, was an editor there in the early 1900s. Nina Stibbe, a novelist known for her book Love, Nina, also worked as an editor at the company in the 1990s. William Germano, an editor who focused on cultural studies, was a vice-president for twenty years.
Famous Authors Published by Routledge
Routledge has published works by many important thinkers and writers. Some of these include Adorno, Bohm, Butler, Derrida, Einstein, Foucault, Freud, Al Gore, Hayek, Hoppe, Jung, Levi-Strauss, McLuhan, Malinowski, Marcuse, Popper, Johan Rockström, Russell, Sartre, and Wittgenstein.
Some of these authors' works have been republished in special collections like the Routledge Classics and Routledge Great Minds series. These series offer important books to new readers.
See also
In Spanish: Routledge para niños
