Three Hundred Years of the American Newspaper

Published to commemorate the 300th anniversary of America's first newspaper, "Publick Occurrences", this book addresses such issues as the relationship between newspapers and government (especially in wartime), the role of the newspaper in shaping the American political and social agenda, the tensions between the newspaper's role as profit-making business and public watchdog, and how the newspaper defines its place relative to other means of public communication. Charles E. Clark, David Paul Nord and Gerald Baldasty examine chronological segments of the first 200 years of the American Press. Venturing well into the 20th century, Michael Schudson addresses the role of the newspaper in creating an American community, and Loren Ghiglione describes the image of the journalist in American fiction. Together, these essays aim to reflect the new direction of journalism and to place the history of the Press in the wider contexts of the history of the book and of American culture. The essays resulted from a series of lectures presented by the American Antiquarian Society in the autumn of 1990.