Description: "An Inky Business is a history of ink, paper, printing press and type. It is the story of those who made and read newspapers in Britain, continental Europe and America from the English Civil Wars to the Battle of Gettysburg over two hundred years later. It is an account of what news was and how the idea of news became central to public life, as well as how newspapers ranged from purveyors of high seriousness to carriers of scurrilous gossip."
Brief description: Matthew Shaw is the librarian of the Queen's College, University of Oxford, and formerly the lead curator of the Americas Collections at the British Library. He is the author of Time and the French Revolution: The Republican Calendar, 1789-Year XIV.
Review Quotes: "Shaw's An Inky Business is a vivid and incisive account of the origins of newspapers and their extraordinary role in the transformation of society over two hundred years. With the very concept of news under threat, this book could not be more timely."--Paul Lay, editor of "History Today" and author of "Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate"