Crying the News

Reviews / Votes

Crying the News is a remarkable work of scholarship and should be accepted and celebrated as such. * David Nasaw, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (retired), Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth * In Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys, Vincent DiGirolamo gives newsboys the historical weight they are due. ... Future scholars of child labor and print journalism will benefit from DiGirolamo's historical unearthing of their lived experiences, deftly contextualized within the broad arc of American history. * Cristina Groeger, The Metropole * To say the book is a comprehensive, definitive account of the subject would be a grotesque understatement. DiGirolamo has spent more than two decades researching this subject, and the results are breathtaking. The author resurrects countless historical characters, telling their stories with ingenuity and grace. At the same time, he provides a comprehensive history of American newspaper publishing and supplies one of the best contributions to the history of youth yet to appear.... At first glance, a history of news hawkers might seem like a limited subject, but Crying the News is social history at its best. For anyone looking for a comprehensive social history of the (really) long nineteenth century, this book would be an excellent place to start. * James Schmidt, New England Quarterly * Monumental....The book situates newsboys in the march of history from the country's economic takeoff, to the rupture between labor and capital, to government interventions into laboring children's welfare.... DiGirolamo's...attention to both the positive and negative sides of newsboys' lived experiences...and their varying complicity with and resistance to capitalism, makes for a well-balanced book that refuses to romanticize its subjects. * Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, Journalism History * Rescuing 'newsies' from the condescension of history with inventive curiosity and stunningly wide research, Vincent DiGirolamo has restored these crucial child laborers-boys and girls, white and black-to their central place in American cities. His revelations about hawking the news offer an ingenious guide to understanding the changing relations between labor and capital and between print media and society in the United States. * Nancy F. Cott, Harvard University * Richly researched, incisively analytic, and compellingly written, Crying the News cuts through the nostalgic myths that envelop the newsboy and lets us enter into their lives, with their distinctive banter, camaraderie, argot, dress, rituals, and ethics. A vivid window into the nation's first urban youth culture and the evolution of news media, this book offers a stunning example of a history that treats the young as active agents who were far more capable and competent than contemporary society assumes. * Steven Mintz, University of Texas at Austin * Crying the News offers a century of American history through the lens of one of our most iconic characters- the newsboy. DiGirolamo focuses on the intimate relationship between news criers and capitalism. Newsboys' voices animate the narrative and deepen our understanding not only of their lives, but also of their communities and their nation. * James Marten, Marquette University * Traditionally a stock figure in American history and culture, the newsboy finally sheds his (and her) picaresque, picturesque, and marginal status in Vincent DiGirolamo's comprehensive and revelatory study. At once a social, cultural, labor, reform, journalism, and capitalist history, Crying the News is an amazing feat of research and writing that, with extraordinary scope and meticulous detail, captures the diverse experience of the 'newsies'as it reveals how we cannot fully understand a hundred years of US life without reckoning with these children and young adults. * Joshua Brown, City University of New York Graduate Center * [This book] reveals the ubiquity of newsboys whose names were rarely recorded, finding their traces in literature, as well as posters, art, and photographs, many of which are reproduced in thirty-three beautiful color plates. DiGirolamo's historically contextualized close readings of these visual artifacts bring newsboys to zestful life for the reader. His book emphasizes that the newsboy's role was not limited to selling and distributing newspapers but expansive enough to reshape the newspaper business, social reform movements, children-related government policies, and even literary representations of children. * Jewon Woo, American Periodicals * A tour de force of social history...DiGirolamo demonstrates that the newsboy was more than a transitional form of labor, or a rite of passage from child to adult employment. Newsboys were a significant part of the American workforce, as well as familiar figures in American culture. * Timothy Gilfoyle, Journal of Urban History * Magisterial...With remarkable detail and breathtaking scope, Crying the News is a stunning achievement that will be of interest not only to historians of labor, capitalism, print journalism, and childhood but also to anyone interested in the American experience...Its singular achievement as a work of social history stands out. Crying the News resurrects the thoughts and actions of newsboys themselves. * Betsy Wood, Journal of American History *