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The first book in a six-volume series on the history of American journalism, this volume provides a survey of the earliest printing in the American colonies, up through the Revolutionary War. The work focuses on the nature of journalism during the years covered, considers noteworthy figures, examines the relationship of journalism to society, and provides explanations for the main directions that journalism was taking.
Early American printing was animated by remarkable vitality and sophistication, with the life of each newspaper and printer being marked by individual ideas and individual struggles. Early Americans also had quite sophisticated ideas about the role and operation of the press. In this survey, the authors try to suggest the complexities of the early American press. They address such issues as why newspapers first appeared, the purpose that newspaper operators saw for themselves, the role of the practice of journalism in the colonial press, and the role of the press in influencing public opinion. Their primary focus, however, is on the essential nature of the early American press and the factors that accounted for that character.
List of contents
Series Foreword
Preface
The Boston Press, 1690-1735
The Philadelphia Press, 1719-1735
Freedom of the Press, 1638-1735
The Expansion of the Colonial Press, 1735-1765
The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766
The Uneasy Years, 1766-1775
The Revolutionary Press, 1775-1783
Reflections on the Early American Press
Bibliographical Essay
Sources
Index
About the author
WM. DAVID SLOAN is Professor of Journalism at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He is the author of
The Significance of the Media in American History (1994) and 11 other books.
JULIE HEDGEPETH WILLIAMS is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mass Communications at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. She has co-authored
The Great Reporters: An Anthology of Newswriting at Its Best (1992).
