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Author:

Barber, Alex W., author.

Title:

The restraint of the press in England, 1660-1715 : the communication of sin / Alex W. Barber.

Publisher:

The Boydell Press,

Copyright Date:

2022

Description:

xvii, 333 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Subject:

Freedom of the press--Great Britain--History--17th century.
Freedom of the press--Great Britain--History--18th century.
Church and the press--Great Britain--History.
Religious literature--Publishing--Great Britain--17th century.
Religious literature--Publishing--Great Britain--18th century.
Censorship--Great Britain--17th century.
Censorship--Great Britain--18th century.
Publishers and publishing--Great Britain--17th century.
Publishers and publishing--Great Britain--18th century.
Religious literature--Publishing--18th century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

This book challenges the idea that the loss of pre-publication licensing in 1695 unleashed a free press on an unsuspecting political class, setting England on the path to modernity. England did not move from a position of complete control of the press to one of complete freedom. Instead, it moved from pre-publication censorship to post-publication restraint. Political and religious authorities and their agents continued to shape and manipulate information. Authors, printers, publishers and book agents were continually harassed. The book trade reacted by practicing self-censorship. At times of political calm, government and the book trade colluded in a policy of policing rather than punishment.0The Restraint of the Press in England problematizes the notion of the birth of modernity, a moment claimed by many prominent scholars to have taken place at the transition from the seventeenth into the eighteenth century. What emerges from this study is not a steady move to liberalism, democracy or modernity. Rather, after 1695, England was a religious and politically fractured society, in which ideas of the sovereignty of the people and the power of public opinion were being established and argued about.
A discussion of the fascinating interplay between communication, politics and religion in early modern England suggesting a new framework for the politics of print culture.

Series:

Studies in early modern cultural, political and social history ; volume 47

ISBN:

1783275170
9781783275175

OCLC:

(OCoLC)1280275122

Locations:

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)