News, Newspapers, and Society in Early Modern Britain

"In early modern Britain news was transformed from a currency of conversation and social exchange to a potent and lucrative industry, capable of manufacturing public opinion and transforming perceptions of literature, medicine, and history. This collection of essays explores the impact of printed periodicals on British culture and society between 1590 and 1800. Using a variety of methods and disciplines (from literary criticism, through political history, the history of books, and the history of medicine) the contributors present a multi-faceted picture of the emerging periodical press, including discussions of the origins of printed newspapers; the role of manuscript transmission of news; the relationship between newsbooks and the theatre; the use of newspapers by political radicals during the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century; the role of women in the early periodical press; the emergence of a public sphere of popular political opinion; the use of advertising as a form of communication; the distribution and readership of newspapers in the provinces; ideas of nationhood in the Scottish periodical press; and the role of medical and philosophical journals in promoting medical reform. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.