The Pamphleteers

Download or read book The Pamphleteers written by James A. Oliver and published by INFORMATION ARCHITECTS. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pamphleteers is an investigation of the early journalism and the emergence of the periodical press as the ‘fourth estate’. In an era long before the advent of the ‘News Paper’, the pamphleteers were the world’s proto-journalists. As a paper platform for a spectrum of religious fanatics, eccentrics, social reporters and satirists, the pamphlet also evolved as a weapon of propaganda (forged between the fledgling press and Star Chamber censorship) for powerful vested interests, political elites, governments - and revolutionists. The Gutenberg revolution-in-print of the Renaissance provided the spark, and the Reformation of the sixteenth century the fuel, for the explosion of the pamphleteering phenomenon. As the pamphlet form took root, then so English prose emerged from its antique form with an extraordinary rash of stylistic innovations to embrace such unlikely postures as subversive fulmination, cod polemic, ferocious satire, and even manifesto. In times of religious ferment, civil war, colonial unrest and revolution, such texts - risky or even dangerous to publish - were often the product of secret presses and anonymous authors. At the other exposure, there were those who encountered that risk - and found notoriety or lasting fame along the way. In the hands of a select few, the pamphlet reached a level of high achievement beyond any ordinary Grub Street reckoning. In this brief survey, the author provides an overview of the timeline from Gutenberg to the French Revolution, with vignettes on: Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, Thomas Dekker, John Milton, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, and culminating with the high achievement of Tom Paine. As a special focus, the narrative reveals how the early journalists were driven, not merely by scandal and sensationalism, but by major historical events on the world stage. The Pamphleteers is itself a pamphlet for the digital age.