Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain

by Joad Raymond

Overview

This unique history of the printed pamphlet in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain traces its rise as an imaginative and often eloquent literary form. Using a broad range of historical, bibliographical and textual evidence, the book shows the coherence of the literary form and the diversity of genres and imaginative devices employed by pamphleteers. Individual chapters examine Elizabethan religious controversy, the book trade, the distribution of pamphlets, pamphleteering in the English Civil War, women and gender, and print in the Restoration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521028776
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	428
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Joad Raymond is Lecturer in English Literature, University of East Anglia

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of figures; Preface; Notes on conventions; Prologue: changing experiences, 1588, 1642, 1688; 1. What is a pamphlet?; 2. 'How loudely they cry': Marprelate, purity and paper bullets; 3. 'Stitchers, Binders, Stationers, Hawkers': printing practices and the book trade; 4. 'A mongrel race of Mercuries lately sprung up': the business of news, c. 1580–1660; 5. 'From words to blowes': Scottish origins of the explosion of print, 1637–42; 6. 'This bookish partiall formall fierce factious animositous age': printing revolutions, 1641–60; 7. 'Speaking abroad': gender, female authorship and pamphleteering; 8. 'A Bog of Plots, Sham-plots, Subordinations and Perjuries': pamphlets and polemic in the Restoration; Epilogue; Index of names and titles; General index.

Editorial Reviews

"In Pamphlets and Pamphleteering Raymond follows the forms and fortunes of print ephemera from the late sixteenth century well into the Restoration... What Raymond captures, and quite wonderfully, is the way in which Dryden's poem is spun out of a heady mixture of gossip, news, literary polemics, and political argument." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Raymond has used his prodigious reading to produce a remarkably stimulating, engaging, and... convincing narrative of the rise and decline of pamphlets in Britain." H-Albion

"This rich scholarly book is so lucid and lively that I would recommend it-especially his definition of "what is a pamphlet"-to anyone (including undergraduates) wanting to know more about the material book and the book trade in this period." SEL Studies in English Literature, Achsah Guibbory, Recent Studies in the English Renaissance

"With its formidable account of cheap print and politics, Raymond's book deserves a place as a standard work in the field of early modern British History." American Historical Review

"An invaluable resource for anyone investigating the early modern history of England, of print culture, of political discourse, and of journalism." Renaissance Quarterly, Alexandra Halasz

"Raymond's study of the early modern pamphlet deserves a place beside the brilliant recent work...that has transformed our understanding of the politics and culture of early modern communication." Albion, Alastair Bellany

"A seemingly tireless researcher, Raymond fulfills many of his pretensions, a considerable achievement on any reckoning." - The Journal of Modern History Michael Mendle, University of Alabama

From the Publisher