The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic / Edition 1

by Jeffrey L. Pasley

Overview

Although frequently attacked for their partisanship and undue political influence, the American media of today are objective and relatively ineffectual compared to their counterparts of two hundred years ago. From the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, newspapers were the republic's central political institutions, working components of the party system rather than commentators on it.

The Tyranny of Printers narrates the rise of this newspaper-based politics, in which editors became the chief party spokesmen and newspaper offices often served as local party headquarters. Beginning when Thomas Jefferson enlisted a Philadelphia editor to carry out his battle with Alexander Hamilton for the soul of the new republic (and got caught trying to cover it up), the centrality of newspapers in political life gained momentum after Jefferson's victory in 1800, which was widely credited to a superior network of papers. Jeffrey L. Pasley tells the rich story of this political culture and its culmination in Jacksonian democracy, enlivening his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragic careers of individual editors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813921778
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	11/29/2002
Series:	Jeffersonian America (Paperback)
Edition description:	First Edition, New Edition, first paperback printing
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Pasley, a former staff writer for the New Republic, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Missouri.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	A Note on Conventions and Methods	xvii
1.	The Newspaper-Based Political System of the Nineteenth-Century United States	1
2.	The Printing Trade in Early American Politics	24
3.	The Two National Gazettes and the Beginnings of Newspaper Politics	48
4.	Benjamin Franklin Bache and the Price of Partisanship	79
5.	The Background and Failure of the Sedition Act	105
6.	Charles Holt's Generation: From Commercial Printers to Political Professionals	132
7.	The Expansion of the Republican Newspaper Network, 1798-1800	153
8.	A Presence in the Public Sphere: William Duane and the Triumph of Newspaper Politics	176
9.	The New Conventional Wisdom: Consolidating and Expanding a Newspaper-Based Political System	196
10.	The Federalists Strike Back	229
11.	Improving on the Sedition Act: Press Freedom and Political Culture after 1800	258
12.	The "Tyranny of Printers" in Jeffersonian Philadelphia	285
13.	Ordinary Editors and Everyday Politics: How the System Worked	320
14.	Newspaper Editors and the Reconstruction of Party Politics	348
Appendix 1.	Charts on the Growth of the American Press	401
Appendix 2.	The Sedition Act and the Expansion of the Republican Press	407
	Notes	411
	Selected Bibliography	467
	Index	499

Editorial Reviews

The Tyranny of Printers is...an essential journey for those who care about the history of our nation's early years, and the emergence of ordinary artisans as extraordinary leaders, sounding and heeding the call to freedom.

-- "Washington Post Book World"

Pasley's book is the best ever written about journalism in the early republic and one of the best about the broader political culture of that era.... For the first time, we can see, brightly and clearly, the vital importance of that era in the history of journalism.

-- "American Historical Review"

The most comprehensive and important work on the partisan printer-editors of the early republic.... [I]t is the first work students and general readers should consult on the subject.

-- "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography"

This is a tremendously valuable work.... Anyone interested in journalism, the rise of political parties, or early America should read The Tyranny of Printers at least twice.

-- "Southern Historian"

This is an important book not just for historians of the press, but for students of the early republic generally. Highly recommended.

-- "CHOICE"

This liberal critique should be read by many of the great number who are now exposed to the conservative biography of Adams by David McCullough.... [The Tyranny of Printers] is a sprightly and provocative history, written with far more flair than the usual scholarly treatise.

-- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"

From the Publisher

This liberal critique should be read by many of the great number who are now exposed to the conservative biography of Adams by David McCullough.... [The Tyranny of Printers] is a sprightly and provocative history, written with far more flair than the usual scholarly treatise.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Tyranny of Printers is...an essential journey for those who care about the history of our nation's early years, and the emergence of ordinary artisans as extraordinary leaders, sounding and heeding the call to freedom.

Washington Post Book World

This is a tremendously valuable work.... Anyone interested in journalism, the rise of political parties, or early America should read The Tyranny of Printers at least twice.

Southern Historian

Pasley's book is the best ever written about journalism in the early republic and one of the best about the broader political culture of that era.... For the first time, we can see, brightly and clearly, the vital importance of that era in the history of journalism.

American Historical Review

This is an important book not just for historians of the press, but for students of the early republic generally. Highly recommended.

CHOICE

The most comprehensive and important work on the partisan printer-editors of the early republic.... [I]t is the first work students and general readers should consult on the subject.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"By far the best book I've seen on the role of newspapers in the making of democracy in America from the Revolution to the age of Jackson. Pasley brings to life a host of obscure but fascinating figures--the party 'hacks' through whose labors Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe ousted the Federalists from power and set America on a democratic course. Pasley sets forward their efforts in engaging narrative, rich in vignettes of leading editors, full of lively anecdotes, ever attentive to the larger implications of the story."
—College of William and Mary

Robert A. Gross

"The Tyranny of Printers will be the book every serious person will consult before they generalize about journalists in the age of Jefferson."
—University of California, Berkeley

Thomas C. Leonard

A former reporter for , Pasley (history, U. of Missouri-Columbia) explores how and by whom the merger between the news media and US political parties was forged in the late 18th century. He says that partnership dominated politics in the country until the 1920 election, when it ended permanently. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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