The Foreign Political Press in Nineteenth-Century London: Politics from a Distance

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In a period of turmoil when European and international politics were in constant reshaping, immigrants and political exiles living in London set up periodicals which contributed actively to national and international political debates. Reflecting an interdisciplinary and international discussion, this book offers a rare long-term specialist perspective into the cosmopolitan and multilingual world of the foreign political press in London, with an emphasis on periodicals published in European languages. It furthers current research into political exile, the role of print culture and personal networks as intercultural agents and the dynamics of transnational political and cultural exchange in global capitals. Individual chapters deal with Brazilian, French, German, Indian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Spanish American, and Russian periodicals. Overarching themes include a historical survey of foreign political groups present in London throughout the long 19th century and the causes and movements they championed; analyses of the press in local and transnational contexts; and a focus on its actors and on the material conditions in which this press was created and disseminated. The Foreign Political Press in Nineteenth-Century London is a useful volume for students and academics with an interest in 19th-century politics or the history of the press.

Reviews

[A] must-read for anybody with a taste for the Victorian press, Victorian politics, cosmopolitanism, and immigration in late nineteenth-century London. It resolutely convinces readers that the foreign political press is a fully fledged part of the British press. * History: Reviews of New Books *
[The] potential benefits of this work for any number of audiences are myriad. Its chapters can easily be incorporated into numerous college courses on journalism, anticolonial or revolutionary studies, or the history of nineteenth-century radicalism, to name a few Bantmans and da Silvas volume will likely, and certainly should, stand as a model contribution for the discipline. * JHistory *
[A] fascinating book ... Ultimately, the reader is impressed with the volumes overall sense of topicality, not only, as Bantman suggests, concerning London and multiculturalism, nor with the wider concept of transnational print culture, but with a more radical questioning of the role and responsibility of the press in the development of extremist international politics. * Journal of European Periodical Studies *
Provides a wide and viable foundation for future research, thereby fulfilling its stated goals by delivering a valuable collection of studies. * Anarchist Studies *
This is an important contribution to print history as well as transnational and migration studies. Its perceptive and revelatory essays break new ground, opening up areas of press activity hitherto downplayed, ignored or unknown. While authoritative, the volume will no doubt inspire a great deal more work in this area. This is a significant book that deserves to be widely read. * Andrew King, Professor of English Literature and Literary Studies, University of Greenwich, UK *
This is an invaluable, scholarly, and original book. By exploring the work of many European, Russian, and Indian activists and journalists who were based in London and published newspapers there during the long 19th century, the contributors cast light on the politics of exile and empire, the shifting meanings of liberalism and protest, the uses of print and language, and the transmission of information across national and continental boundaries. * Linda Colley, Shelby M.C.Davis 1958 Professor of History, Princeton University, USA *
A highly significant contribution to the field of Victorian periodical studies. Through case-studies, the contributors present a thorough analysis of the print cultures of many foreign national groups in 19th-century London. This is the first endeavour to consider the foreign political press in Britain globally, and it is set to encourage fruitful discussions and enrich the historiography of the transnational press. * Stphanie Prvost, Senior Lecturer in 19th-Century British History, Paris Diderot University, France *
A solid collection that provides the reader with a detailed geography of the Victorian London publishing world and sheds some light on aspects hitherto neglected. * European Review of History *

Author Bio

Constance Bantman is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Surrey, UK. She is the author of The French Anarchists in London 1880-1914 (2013) and the co-editor, along with Bert Altena, of Reassessing the Transnational Turn: Scales of Analysis in Anarchist and Syndicalist Studies (2015). Ana Cludia Suriani da Silva is Senior Lecturer in Brazilian Studies at University College London, UK. She is the author of Machado de Assiss Philosopher or Dog From Serial to Book Form (2010), the co-editor, along with Sandra Guardini Vasconcelos, of Books and Periodicals in Brazil 1768-1930 (2014) and the co-editor, along with Marcia Abreu, of The Cultural Revolution of the Nineteenth Century: Theatre, the Book-Trade and Reading in the Transatlantic World (2016).