This book explores a key aspect of journalism history from a sociological perspective: the rise of the periodical press. With a focus not on the economic and technological causes of this revolution but on the social and political consequences, the book takes a global look at this key development in the British press. Taking as a point of departure the theory of E.S. Dallas, who defined the periodical as 'the great event in modern history', the book explores these premises and conclusions regarding authorship, publishing, and readership, considering the nineteenth century as a whole. After an introductory section discussing questions of theory and method, the analysis first offers an overview of the quantitative growth of the periodical market, whether measured in terms of publications, readership, or authorship, before turning to a more detailed consideration of its qualitative determinants and effects, again distinguishing the same three aspects. Offering new insight into this key turning point in journalism history, this book will be of interest to all students and scholars of journalism and journalism history, media history, media and communication studies, British history, and modern history.

When the ancien régime collapsed during the summer of 1789 the newspaper press was free for the first time in French history. The result was an explosion in the number of newspapers with over 2,000 titles appearing between 1789 and 1799. This study, originally published in 1988, traces the growth of the French Press during this time, showing the importance of the emergence of provincial newspapers, and examining the relationship of journalism with political power. Concluding chapters discuss the economics of newspapers during the decade, analysing the machinery of printing, distribution and sales.

This study challenges the conventional polarities used to describe British politics of the 1790s; Pitt versus Fox, Burke versus Paine, Church versus Dissent, ruling class versus working class, Jacobin versus anti-Jacobin. Such polarities were sedulously promoted by Pitt's wartime government, which applied 'Jacobin' shamelessly to all its critics and opponents, and thus foreshadowed the McCarthyite tactic of guilt by association. The author seeks to make the less strident but more persuasive contemporary voices again audible. He takes seriously those who questioned the necessity for Burke's crusade to destroy the French republic, and who deplored Britain's alliance with the partitioners of Poland.

A comprehensive and authoritative overview of the diversity, range and impact of the newspaper and periodical press in nineteenth-century Britain.

A major illustrated collection offering a fresh interdisciplinary reading of Chinese women's periodicals and history in the long twentieth century.

This book analyses the significance of the special correspondent as a new journalistic role in Victorian print culture, within the context of developments in the periodical press, throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Examining the graphic reportage produced by the first generation of these pioneering journalists, through a series of thematic case studies, it considers individual correspondents and their stories, and the ways in which they contributed to, and were shaped by, the broader media landscape. While commonly associated with the reportage of war, special correspondents were in fact tasked with routinely chronicling all manner of topical events at home and abroad. What distinguished the work of these journalists was their effort to ‘picture’ the news, to transport readers imaginatively to the events described. While criticised by some for its sensationalism, special correspondence brought the world closer, shrinking space and time, and helping to create our modern news culture.