In older texts, single quotes are used for a normal quote, and double quotes are used for quotes within quotes, which makes more sense to me. Nowadays its the other way around. I noticed that in some older books (a version of a Dickens book does this) do double quotes for normal quotes because the entire book is encompassed in single quotes, as though the narrator is a third person. When did this switch happen or am I wrong and its just been a matter of preference?
I can't speak for the history of double quotes in America (did we use to use single quotes and change?), but single quotes are normal in the UK. I use single quotes by default in all my history writing, because most of my journals are based in the UK, and most of them prefer submissions to use single quotes.
Where were the older books you read printed (America or UK)?