The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 3. Language and the Printed Word. Part 12: A Conservative Press

Chapter 49.  The Decline of the Book

• output of books very small considering intellectual energy
• other types of printed grew in profusion
• reasons for book's lack of development
• scarcity of type
• scarcity and poor quality of paper
• Stamp Act and Townshend Acts both taxed paper among other items
• correspondence written on any scraps of paper to be found
• paper that was manufactured was not made to last
• inferior ink
• printing presses had to be imported
• imported book became staple of American bookseller
• American printing lagged technically behind England's
• printer tried to cover investment through advance subscriptions
• had to play it safe
• solidly conventional list of publications
• few books of lasting significance appeared
• religious books proliferated in North
• legal books in South

Chapter 50.  The Rise of the Newspaper

• American printers left free to serve special needs of his community
• presses were flourishing by mid 18th century
• bulk of printed material was government work in early years
• statutes
• votes and proceedings of colonial assemblies
• legal and commercial forms, a staple commodity
• almanacs
• most important printed matter next to Bible for many farmers
• back numbers kept for reading matter
• spread up-to-date political information, opinion and argument in pre-Revolutionary era
• larger income and future lay with newspaper
• by early 18th century, newspapers had become a familiar institution
• precocious development
• growth stimulated by circumstances
• spread of literacy
• extent of the country
• existence of several capitals, each with its own different ways
• competition among a number of seaboard cities
• symbol of how Americans broke down all distinctions
• need to be useful and relevant, not requiring long study and concentration
• mixed the public and private
• took the community into account with a view to action and specific events rather than universal principles
• advertising
• saved the newspaper from becoming too literary
• history of journalism shows tie to commercial spirit
• magazines
• mixed literary form
• first one with continuous history appeared in 1741
• few, short-lived, and pallid sums up overall output
• practiced habit of copying articles from other, mostly English publications

Chapter 51.  Why Colonial Printed Matter was Conservative

• tight, effective control by government
• no secret presses
• no real freedom of the press as we know it
• traditional European idea of a monopoly of the press to cement the social order was successfully transplanted
• influence of New England
• more than half the colonial imprints between 1639 and 1763
• press restrictions were single largest influence
• government control remained effective into Revolutionary era and during war itself
• printing began under government supervision in all the colonies
• no press in Virginia from 1683 until 1730
• only one until 1767, an official organ of government
• outside of Boston, Philadelphia and New York were two leading printing centers
• government support meant government control
• confinement of the American press
• government control
• censorship
• threat of libel prosecution
• under these restrictions, colonial presses could hardly be centers of novel, startling or radical ideas
• printers' need to be a government man acceptable to ruling group
• only government business made it possible for a man to live by his press

Chapter 52.  "The Publick Printer"

• steps to success
• winning confidence of government
• discovering sources of news
• finding ways of distributing his commodity quickly
• results led to the development of an unprecedented network of public information which eventually would link a vast nation together
• aspects of life which increased printer's influence
• large number of separate governments
• this gave a focus and practical purpose to printed matter
• put printing press in service of entire literate community
• men qualified to be public printers were always in demand
• became an American institution
• influence in public life foreshadowed special American relationship between politics and the press (e.g., Presidential press conference)
• growth of responsibility
• printer was chief local customer of post office
• gathering place for men of affairs
• postmaster had quickest and most confidential access to news through letters.
• printer found it convenient to take on duties of local postmaster
• printer's shop came to resemble a general store
• advantage of being postmaster kept press in hands of respectable men
• advantages developed by earliest printers
• intimately acquainted with public tastes
• learned the problems of selling and delivering printed matter to a wide audience
• reason for first U.S post office
• needs of the Continental Congress
• new American army
• rising colonial newspapers
• system set up on model of William Goddard
• man who had opposed post office monopoly under Franklin's rule as Deputy Postmaster General
• Franklin chosen as first postmaster which sealed the continuing close relationship between the post office and politics

Related posts:
The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel Boorstin,  Book 1.  The Vision and the Reality Part 1.  A City Upon a Hill:  The Puritans of Massachusetts.  (12/8/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 2. The Inward Plantation: The Quakers of Pennsylvania.  (12/10/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 3. Victims of Philanthropy: The Settlers of Georgia.  (12/13/2014)
The Americans;  The Colonial Experience, Part 4.  Transplanters:  The Virginians.  (12/14/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 5: An American Frame of Mind.  (12/17/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 6: Educating the Community
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 7: The Learned Lose Their Monopolies.  (12/24/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 8: New World Medicine.  (12/31/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 9: The Limits of American Science
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 3. Language and the Printed Word. Part 10: The New Uniformity.  (1/6/2015)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 3. Language and the Printed Word. Part 11: Culture Without a Capital;  (1/11/2015)