Description:
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.
Review Quotes: ..."one of the books greatest strengths is that the early American press is taken seriously, and so the origins of American journalism are closely, astutely, and comprehensively examined and analyzed. Sloan and Williams clearly have made an extremely important contribution to the historical scholarship of this period by demonstrating the high degree of press sophistication that previously has been ignored or disregarded by writers uninterested in the social and intellectual content of early American periodicals. The extensive endnotes, bibliography, and solid historigraphical foundation qualify it as required reading for a graduate course in American journalism history. Furthermore, the high quality of this book holds much promise for a welcomed series of great import to the discipline."-Journalism Educator