Overview

The early 19th century struggles first for a free, and then for a cheap press were fought out in classically liberal ideological terms, and by typically nineteenth century organisations, based on the model of the Anti-Corn Law League. Originally published in 1976, this book begins by showing how these struggles culminated in the emergence of a cheap daily press in the 1860s. The book shows how this development was also dependent on technical, economic and commercial changes, which gradually transformed the press from predominantly small-scale craft production to large-scale industrial production for a large and increasingly homogenous. market. The book discusses the ways in which these industrial developments came increasingly to hamper the attainment of the earlier classical liberal vision of the cheap press. The rise and fall of the provincial penny daily, the growing emphasis upon profits, the increasing professionalisation of journalism, and the style and content of the ‘new journalism’ were all indicative of the impact of economic growth upon that liberal vision. Nowhere were these changes felt more than in politics and the changing relationship between the press and politics, and politicians and the electorate forms the last part of the book.

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9781041226796

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Reviews

Original Reviews of The Origins of the Popular Press: ‘Dr Lee is the first to attempt an overall analysis for a period when the sheer volume of the sources becomes overwhelming by the conversion of a large part of the provincial press from weekly to daily publication. He has provided the context within which further research may be developed by exploring the technical, commercial and professional facets of newspaper organization and production. He never shies away from the difficulties, for instance, of establishing literacy or circulation figures, and does not overstate the 'influence' of the press as contemporaries were apt to do….Urban historians will find Dr Lee's book a mine of information whose analytical treatment creates a framework of national (and even international) perspectives.’ Derek Fraser, Urban History Review, Vol 5 (1978) ‘A valuable and welcome contribution to the literature on the subject.’ Raymond Schults, American Historical Review, Vol 82, Issue 5 (1977)

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