Many books have shown that journalists have political power, but none have offered a more wide-ranging account of how they got it. The Power of the Press is a pioneering look at the birth of political journalism. Before the American Revolution, Thomas Leonard notes, the press in the colonies was a timid enterprise, poorly protected by law and shy of government. Newspapers helped make the Revolution, but they were not fully aware of the way
they could fit into a democracy. It was only in the nineteenth century that journalists learned to tell the stories and supply the pictures that made politics a national preoccupation. Leonard traces
the rise of political reporting through some fascinating corridors of American history: the exposes of the Revolutionary era, the "unfeeling accuracy" of Congressional reporting, the role of the New York Times and Harper's Weekly in attacking New York City's infamous Tweed Ring, and the emergence of "muckraking" at the beginning of our century. The increasing power of the press in the political arena has been a double-edged sword, Leonard argues. He shows that while
political reporting nurtured the broad interest in politics that made democracy possible, this journalism became a threat to political participation.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'"The Power of the Press" deals with basic issues, byt Mr Leonard is too good a historian to confine himself for very long to disembodied speculation. He keeps close to events and personalities, and enlivens his narrative with diverting detail.' New York Times 'the most perceptive and provocative study of the history of the press to appear in some years' The Philadelphia Enquirer 'the reader even remotely interested in how the news he gets comes to be the way it is, will enjoy the story as Mr Leonard tells it' The Washington Times Magazine 'Leonard's selective hitory of political reporting's long halting advance in the pre-broadcast era offers rewarding perspectives for both consumers and providers of news' Kirkus Reviews 'an important and radically new history of American political journalism...a splendid episodic book' Los Angeles Times
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Illustrationen
frontispiece, line illustrations
Maße
Höhe: 225 mm
Breite: 148 mm
Dicke: 23 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-19-503719-7 (9780195037197)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Thomas C. Leonard is Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of Above the Battle: War-Making in America from Appomattax to Versailles.
