Papers for the Millions: The New Journalism in Britain, 1850s to 1914

(Hardback)

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This scholarly work deals specifically with the important changes in popular journalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A pioneering study in the history of journalism, it is the first volume to focus on the history of the New Journalism in Britain, which is central in the overall history of the modern press. Written by leading scholars representing a variety of disciplines, the fourteen essays provide a careful historical analysis of the transformation that took place in journalism, and the innovations that occurred, such as the greater use of illustrations and photographs, headlines and crossheads, and increased coverage of human interest subjects. The authors take different positions on aspects of the New Journalism, and the book offers a wealth of new information based on original research, as well as lively, interpretive commentary on the nature of change in modern journalism and its relationship to popular culture. The in-depth examination of major subject areas, such as The Beginnings of the New Journalism, The Flowering of the New Journalism, and Subjects and Audiences, dispels the simplistic view of the New Journalism as occurring within a short period of time by showing that the changes took place slowly and had many ramifications. The annotated bibliography includes studies of individual newspapers and biographies of some of the leading journalists.

Reviews

.,."Joel Wiener's 'Bibliographical Essay' appropriately concludes this collection. His review of the literature indicates what has been done and what remains to be done in nineteenth-century newspaper history and unifies the various strands of the New Journalism presented in Papers for the Millions. Indeed, Wiener's review would have been of good use to the work of Linton and Boston."-Albion
. . . This book is simply a reflection of the current state of press history, and it has performed a valuable service in laying out some guidelines for where future research should focus.-Victorian Studies
...Joel Wiener's 'Bibliographical Essay' appropriately concludes this collection. His review of the literature indicates what has been done and what remains to be done in nineteenth-century newspaper history and unifies the various strands of the New Journalism presented in Papers for the Millions. Indeed, Wiener's review would have been of good use to the work of Linton and Boston.-Albion
These 14 essays are based on the proceedings of a conference held at the City University of New York in 1986 to discuss British journalism from the mid-19th century to WWI. The essays are primarily concerned with the transitional period between the Victorian press and the sensationalism and commercialism that was to come. Mathew Arnold viewed this New Journalism' as untrustworthy and insipid, but the authors add context to expand the boundaries of the form and to suggest positive as well as negative consequences. . . . More than enough detail and new information is presented, however, to interest not only journalism historians but also scholars of the politics, social fabric, and literature of the period. Editor Joel H. Wiener provides an introduction and bibliographical essay. A good addition to recent scholarship such as Lucy Brown's Victorian News and Newspapers that makes a case for closer attention to this period. For graduate students mainly.-Choice
..."Joel Wiener's 'Bibliographical Essay' appropriately concludes this collection. His review of the literature indicates what has been done and what remains to be done in nineteenth-century newspaper history and unifies the various strands of the New Journalism presented in Papers for the Millions. Indeed, Wiener's review would have been of good use to the work of Linton and Boston."-Albion
." . . This book is simply a reflection of the current state of press history, and it has performed a valuable service in laying out some guidelines for where future research should focus."-Victorian Studies
"These 14 essays are based on the proceedings of a conference held at the City University of New York in 1986 to discuss British journalism from the mid-19th century to WWI. The essays are primarily concerned with the transitional period between the Victorian press and the sensationalism and commercialism that was to come. Mathew Arnold viewed this New Journalism' as untrustworthy and insipid, but the authors add context to expand the boundaries of the form and to suggest positive as well as negative consequences. . . . More than enough detail and new information is presented, however, to interest not only journalism historians but also scholars of the politics, social fabric, and literature of the period. Editor Joel H. Wiener provides an introduction and bibliographical essay. A good addition to recent scholarship such as Lucy Brown's Victorian News and Newspapers that makes a case for closer attention to this period. For graduate students mainly."-Choice

Author Bio

JOEL H. WIENER, Professor of History at the City College of New York, has published widely on nineteenth-century British history. His books include The War of the Unstamped (1969), A Descriptive Finding List of Unstamped British Periodicals (1970), and Radicalism and Freethought in Nineteenth-Century Britain (1983).