A PATRIOT PRESS

This is a meticulous and scholarly study of the polemical press of the 1740s and, through it, the first substantial investigation of the politics of that decade for a generation. A combination of war and political instability ensured that, particularly before 1746, press intervention in politics was both lively and influential. Robert Harris examines the vigorous and wide-ranging debates in newspapers, pamphlets, and political prints about the principal issues of the day - the fall of Walpole, the influence of Hanover, the ’Forty-Five, and Britain’s role in the War of the Austrian succession. He shows how, by the mid-eighteenth century, the press had invaded all levels of politics - the court, parliament, and beyond Westminster. Dr Harris’s detailed analysis of the confusing and fragmented politics of the 1740s, seen through the pages of the press, sheds important light on patterns of change and continuity in the political culture of mid-eighteenth-century England. A Patriot Press makes an important contribution to our understanding of political ideology and party strife in the eighteenth century, as well as to our knowledge of the workings of the press.