The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 2
Expansion and Evolution, 1800-1900
Edited by David Finkelstein
A thorough account of newspaper and periodical press history in Britain and Ireland from 1800–1900
- Winner of the Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize 2021
- Provides a comprehensive history of the British and Irish Press from 1800-1900, reflected upon in 60 substantive chapters and focused case studies
- Sets out to capture the cross-regional and transnational dimension of press history in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland
- Offers unique and important reassessments of nineteenth-century British and Irish press and periodical media within social, cultural, technological, economic and historical contexts
This is a unique collection of essays examining nineteenth-century British and Irish newspaper and periodical history during a key period of change and development. It covers an important point of expansion in periodical and press history across the four nations of Great Britain (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales), concentrating on cross-border and transnational comparisons and contrasts in nineteenth-century print communication.
Designed to provide readers with a clear understanding of the current state of research in the field, in addition to an extensive introduction, it includes forty newly commissioned chapters and case studies exploring a full range of press activity and press genres during this intense period of change. Along with keystone chapters on the economics of the press and periodicals, production processes, readership and distribution networks, and legal frameworks under which the press operated, the book examines a wide range of areas from religious, literary, political and medical press genres to analyses of overseas and émigré press and emerging developments in children’s and women’s press.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Contributor Biographies
Introduction, David Finkelstein
PART I: Press and Periodical Economics
1. The Economics of Press and Periodical Production, Howard Cox and Simon Mowatt
Case Study 1: Newspapers and Advertising, Peter Robinson
PART II: Production and Distribution
2. Production, Helen S. Williams
Case Study 2: John Cossar & Son and the Govan Press, Helen S. Williams
3. The Evolution of Image-Making Industries and the Mid- to Late Victorian Press, Rose Roberto
PART III: Readership and Distribution
4. Readership and Distribution, Paul Raphael Rooney
PART IV: Identities and Communities
5. Cultural Agents and Contexts: The Professionalisation of Journalism, Joanne Shattock
Case Study 3: New Journalism, Philip March
Case Study 4: Letters to the Editor, Allison Cavanagh
Case Study 5: The Reporter, Stephen Tate
Case Study 6: The Byline, Steve Harrison
PART V: Legal Frameworks
6. Newspapers and the Law in the Nineteenth Century, Tom O’Malley
PART VI: Themed Chapters
7. The English-Language Press in Continental Europe, Diana Cooper-Richet
8. Transnational Exchanges, M. H. Beals
Case Study 7: The Fight in Piccadilly: How False News Went Viral in 1895, Colette Colligan
Case Study 8: Transnational Exchange between British and Swedish Periodicals in the 1830s, Cecilia Wadsö Lecaros
Case Study 9: An Imperial Ideology of News: News Values and Reporting about Japan in Colonial India, Amelia Bonea
Case Study 10: The Steamship Press: An International Conduit of Information and Imperial Masculinity, Paul Raphael Rooney
Case Study 11: The Russian Emigre Press, Helen S. Williams
9. Literary and Review Journalism, Joanne Wilkes
10. ‘One language is quite sufficient for the mass’: Metropolitan Journalism, the British State and the ‘Vernacular’ Periodical Press in Wales, 1840–914, Aled Gruffydd Jones
11. The Scottish Gaelic Press, Sheila M. Kidd
12. The Irish-Language Press: ‘A tender plant at the best of times’?, Regina Uí Chollatáin
13. The Nineteenth-Century Denominational Press, Joan Allen
Case Study 12: The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, Ian d’Alton
14. Comics, Cartoons and the Illustrated Press, Elizabeth Tilley
15. The Satirical Press, Michael de Nie
16. The Medical Press and Its Public, Sally Frampton
17. Science and the Press, Alex Csiszar
Case Study 13: ‘Fellows that never knew each other’: Natural History Periodicals, Matthew Wale
18. The Business Press, Melissa Score
19. The Press and Radical Expression: Structure and Dissemination, Martin Conboy
20. The Political Press, James Thompson
Case Study 14: The Glasgow Herald, James Thompson
Case Study 15: Parnell, Edmund Dwyer Gray and the Press in Ireland, Felix M. Larkin
Case Study 16: The Nation, James Quinn
21. The Trade and Professional Press, Andrew King
Case Study 17: The Book Trade Press, Rachel Calder
Case Study 18: The Armed Services Press, Margery Masterson
22. The Leisure and Hobby Press, Christopher A. Kent
Case Study 19: Galleries without Walls: Art and the Mechanical Mass Culture of the Press, Michael Bromley and Karen Hasin-Bromley
23. The Sporting Press, Joel H. Wiener
Case Study 20: Sport Reporting in the Times from 1800 to 1900, Jessie Wilkie
24. The Children’s Press, Frederick S. Milton
Case Study 21: Children and the News, Siân Pooley
25. The Women’s Press, Kathryn Ledbetter
26. The Provincial, Local and Regional Press, Andrew J. H. Jackson
Case Study 22: The Provincial Nature of the London Letter, Andrew Hobbs
Case Study 23: William Saunders and the Industrial Supply of News in the Late Nineteenth Century, Andrew Hobbs
Case Study 24: The Irish Times: ‘The Protestant and Conservative daily newspaper’, Mark O’Brien
Key Press and Periodical Events Timeline, 1800–1900
Bibliography
Index
This hefty volume should be present in each university library, as a precious, and indispensable tool for students and scholars who investigate not only the British and Irish nineteenth-century press, but Victorian culture and technology, visual studies, advertisement and, generally, the complex and evolving relationship between Victorian readers and printed information.
Bringing together the technological and the human aspects of print culture, The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press depicts a press that is always both organic and industrial. This volume, as Finkelstein’s introduction underscores, not only highlights the expansion and evolution inherent in nineteenth-century British and Irish publishing, but it also reflects the evolution of periodical studies and invites further expansive scholarship.
This is an invaluable contribution to the field of nineteenth-century publishing and social history, and also a useful reference source for scholars and librarians.
This is a compendious, shaped and distinctive guide to the nineteenth-century press, which thoroughly covers both the newspaper and periodical press, and Britain and Ireland. It is interested in borders - the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Gaelic press, the developing fields of transnational exchanges, and the local and regional press. The extraordinary breadth of the press is faithfully reflected in accessible essays and case studies. Fresh pieces on production and distribution, press law, professionalisation, and economics anchor this account of the industry. Numerous illustrations make it come alive.
David Finkelstein, one of our most distinguished historians of journalism, has drawn on a wide range of colleagues in the field to dwell on the political, economic and technological aspects of the story.
Transcribing a thorough history of the British and Irish press over an entire century may seem like a daunting task, yet David Finkelstein completes it with aplomb. ... Covering a wide range of topics, the collection is rich with information that will be new to many readers of Victorian Periodicals Review and useful to students and scholars alike.
