Description
The press played a significant role in the Civil War, as it was able to disseminate information about the war and the different sides of the conflict. The press also played a role in shaping the public's perception of the Civil War, and in influencing the outcome of the war.
The influence of the American press on turn-of-the-century politics is commonly associated with the rise of press barons Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Their power had deeper roots in the journalistic culture of the nineteenth century, particularly in the social and political conflicts that climaxed with the Civil War. Until now historians have paid little attention to the role of the press in defining and disseminating the conflicting views of the North and the South. In The Civil War and the Press, historians, political scientists, and scholars of journalism measure the influence of the press of the day, explore its diversity, and profile prominent editors and publishers. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1, "Setting the Agenda for Secession and War," considers the rise of the consumer society and journalistic readership, the changing nature of editorial standards and practice, the issues of abolitionism, secession, and armed resistance as reflected in Northern and Southern newspapers, the reporting on John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid, and the influence of journalism on the 1860 election results. Part 2, "In Time of War," includes discussions of journalistic images and ideas of womanhood in the context of war, the political orientation of the Jewish press, the rise of illustrated periodicals, and issues of censorship and opposition journalism. Part 3, "Reconstructing a Nation," details the infiltration of the former Confederacy by hundreds of federally subsidized Republican newspapers, editorial reactions to the developing issue of voting rights for freed slaves, and the journalistic mythologization of Jesse James as a resister of Reconstruction laws and conquering Unionists. In tracing the confluence of journalism and politics from its source, this groundbreaking volume opens a wide variety of perspectives on a crucial period in American history while raising questions that remain pertinent to contemporary tensions between press power and government power. It will be essential reading for historians, media studies specialists, political scientists, and readers interested in the Civil War period.
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