The fourth estate Book

Newspapers, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855 explores the development of newspapers between the lapsing of the Printing Act in the late seventeenth century, and the removal of newspaper taxation in the mid nineteenth century. During this period, the newspaper press expanded rapidly until, by the early nineteenth century, newspapers were produced in huge numbers and had become part of the everyday life of the most humble Englishmen and women. As such, they had a profound impact on both popular politics and on the nature of public opinion. Newspapers were vital not only in putting 'the people' into English politics, but in politicising and thus uniting sections within the increasingly powerful body of 'the public'. The newspaper press not only altered the manner in which politics was conducted at the centre, but also the way in which it operated at every level of English life. As such it played a crucial role in the political change which occurred in England between 1695 and 1855. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of the political and social history of the period, as well as those examining literature, print culture and the history of media and communications.