This set includes the key ninteenth century histories of British journalism. Since William Caxton set up the first printing press in London in 1476, and his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde started printing in Fleet Street, printing and newspapers have become a major part of political and cultural history.
These histories follow the changing patterns of newsapers from their real beginnings in the seventeenth century, through the rise of provincial newspapers of the eighteenth century, and the changes of distribution in the nineteenth century. Between them the books cover biographical sketches of leading personalities, discussions of press trials and histories of individual newspapers. A companion set on the history of American journalism will be published in 1999.