Conflict and enlightenment : print and political culture in Europe, 1635-1795

New approaches to the history of print have allowed historians of early modern Europe to re-evaluate major shifts in religious, intellectual, cultural and political life across Europe. Drawing on precise and detailed study of the contexts of different types of print, including books, pamphlets, newspapers and flysheets, combined with quantitative analysis and a study of texts as material objects, Thomas Munck offers a transformed picture of early modern political culture, and through analysis of new styles and genres of writing he offers a fresh perspective on the intended readership. Conflict and Enlightenment uses a resolutely comparative approach to re-examine what was being disseminated in print, and how. By mapping the transmission of texts across cultural and linguistic divides, Munck reveals how far new forms of political discourse varied depending on the particular perspectives of authors, readers and regulatory authorities, as well as the cultural adaptability of translators and sponsors. Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Print, Production, Authors and Readers Quantifying Print Output from the Reformation to 1800 Printed Newsletters and Visual Imagery Newspapers and Periodicals as Political Texts in the Century after 1660 Pamphlets The Printing Workshop: Production, Costs, Sales and Workflow Copyright, Intellectual Property and Dissemination Authors and Intended Readers: Milton, Hobbes and Spinoza The Changing Dynamics of Print and Dissemination 2 Instability and Politicisation (1630–77) Power and Propaganda Visualised in the Thirty Years War Pamphlets and Politics in England in the 1640s Print during the Commonwealth and Protectorate Print in France during the Fronde Access to Politics: the Netherlands Political Volatility and Print in the Mid-seventeenth Century 3 Subversive Print in the Early Enlightenment Biblical Interpretation and the Power of Intolerance in Civil Society Impact of Forbidden Reading Civil Society in Fact and Fiction in the Age of Locke, Toland, Fénelon and Montesquieu Newspapers, Journals and Periodicals around the Turn of the Century Public Opinion and the Public Sphere 1685–1721 4 Translation and Transmission across Cultural Borders Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Theories of Language and the Tower of Babel Books and Reputations across Frontiers: Case Studies Translating and Rewriting Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments Review Journals and the Imagined Republic of Readers Revolution and Neology Speaking, Writing, Translating: Texts and Concepts 5 High Enlightenment, Political Texts and Reform 1748–89 Censorship, Libel and Illegal Books News and Political Periodicals Patriotic Societies, ‘Improvement’ and the Use of Data Pamphleteering and Political Lobbying Government-sponsored Print Public Opinion and Political Discourse in the European Context 6 Revolution: Democracy and Loyalism in Print 1789–95 Women in Politics and Print Democratising the ‘Political Nation’: Paris Radicals Further Responses in Print Making and Shaping the News Language and the Creation of ‘National’ Understanding Publishing and Revolutionary Politics Conclusions Select Bibliography Index "In the early modern period, printing was the only means of disseminating a text or message reliably to a large number of people. Print could serve all kinds of purposes, ranging from religious education to scientific debate, from state propaganda to open political subversion, from proclamations and the reporting of news to the provision of entertaining fictional reading. But the printing industry was also one of the most complex, labour-intensive and investment-dependent sectors of the early modern economy, involving a huge range of very specialised and skilled manual labour as well as a range of associated trades (see Figure 1). It required considerable infrastructure, management and marketing skills, and was subject to severe market fluctuations with high risks. These conflicting pressures were not matched by any substantial technological change in the printing industry from the middle of the fifteenth century right through to the Napoleonic period. So despite gaining a solid footing in the economies of many large prosperous cities, the increase in the use of print for particular purposes was unsteady, and its geographic spread surprisingly uneven"-- Provided by publisher