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A pamphlet is an unbound
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
(that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book. For the "International Standardization of Statistics Relating to Book Production and Periodicals",
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
defines a pamphlet as "a non-
periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...
printed publication of at least 5 but not more than 48 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in a particular country and made available to the public" and a
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
as "a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages". The UNESCO definitions are, however, only meant to be used for the particular purpose of drawing up their book production statistics.


Etymology

The word ''pamphlet'' for a small work (''opuscule'') issued by itself without covers came into
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
1387 as or , generalized from a twelfth-century amatory comic poem with an old flavor, '' Pamphilus, seu de Amore'' ("Pamphilus: or, Concerning Love"), written in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. Pamphilus's name is derived from the Greek name , meaning "beloved of all". The poem was popular and widely copied and circulated on its own, forming a slim
codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
.


History

Its modern connotations of a
tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...
concerning a contemporary issue was a product of the heated arguments leading to the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
; this sense appeared in 1642. In some European languages, this secondary connotation, of a disputatious tract, has come to the fore: compare '' libelle'', from the Latin ''libellus'', denoting a "little book". Pamphlets functioned in place of
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
articles in the pre-magazine era, which ended in the mid-nineteenth century. There were hundreds of them in the United States alone. They were a primary means of communication for people interested in political and religious issues, such as
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. Pamphlets never looked at both sides of a question; most were avowedly partisan, trying not just to inform but to convince the reader.


Purpose

Pamphlets can contain anything from information on kitchen appliances to medical information and religious treatises. Pamphlets are very important in
marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
because they are cheap to produce and can be distributed easily to customers. Pamphlets have also long been an important tool of
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
and
political campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...
ing for similar reasons. A
pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation. Context Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articulate a poli ...
is a historical term for someone who produces or distributes pamphlets, especially for a political cause.


Collectibility

Due to their ephemeral nature and to the wide array of political and religious perspectives given voice by the format's ease of production, pamphlets are prized by many book collectors. Substantial accumulations have been amassed and transferred to ownership of academic
research libraries A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of to ...
around the world. Particularly comprehensive collections of American political pamphlets are housed at
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, the
Tamiment Library The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. The R ...
of
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
, and the Jo Labadie collection at the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.Oakley C. Johnson, ''Marxism in United States History Before the Russian Revolution (1876-1917).'' New York: Humanities Press, 1974; pg. vii.


Commercial uses

The pamphlet has been widely adopted in commerce, particularly as a format for
marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
communications. There are numerous purposes for pamphlets, such as product descriptions or instructions, corporate information, events promotions or tourism guides and they are often used in the same way as leaflets or brochures.


See also

*
Long-form journalism Long-form journalism is a branch of journalism dedicated to longer articles with larger amounts of content. Typically, this will be between 1,000 and 20,000 words. Long-form articles often take the form of creative nonfiction or narrative journa ...
*
Flyer (pamphlet) A flyer (or flier) is a form of paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine ...


Footnotes


External links

*
Randy Silverman, 1987. "Small, Not Insignificant: a Specification for a Conservation Pamphlet Binding Structure", ''The Book and Paper Group Annual'' 6.
Historical overview focusing on pamphlet binding.
19th Century British Pamphlets Online.
Information about a project that digitised 26,000 19th century pamphlets from UK research libraries.
19th Century Pamphlet Collection.
Collection of 19th-century pamphlets, predominantly of Irish interest and covering a broad spectrum of subjects. A UCD Digital Library Collection.
19th Century Social History Pamphlets Collection.
Collection of pamphlets relating to 19th century Irish social history, particularly the themes of education, health, famine, poverty, business and communications. A UCD Digital Library Collection. * This contains an extensive history of the pamphlet form from the 14th century, in England, France, and Germany. {{Authority control Paper products Advertising publications by format fr:Tract