The Invention of Free Press

Writers and Censorship in Eighteenth Century Europe
Softcover Nachdruck of the original 1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-94-024-1332-8
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, Band 219, 200 Seiten, Previously published in hardcover, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 3518 g

Reihe: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées

Tracking the relationship between the theory of press control and the realities of practicing daily press censorship prior to publication, this volume on the suppression of dissent in early modern Europe tackles a topic with many elusive and under-researched characteristics. Pre-publication censorship was common in absolutist regimes in Catholic and Protestant countries alike, but how effective it was in practice remains open to debate. The Netherlands and England, where critical content segued into outright lampoonery, were unusual for hard-wired press freedoms that arose, respectively, from a highly competitive publishing industry and highly decentralized political institutions. These nations remained extraordinary exceptions to a rule that, for example in France, did not end until the revolution of 1789. Here, the author’s European perspective provides a survey of the varying censorship regulations in European nations, as well as the shifting meanings of ‘freedom of the press’. The analysis opens up fascinating insights, afforded by careful reading of primary archival sources, into the reactions of censors confronted with manuscripts by authors seeking permission to publish. Tortarolo sets the opinions on censorship of well-known writers, including Voltaire and Montesquieu, alongside the commentary of anonymous censors, allowing us to revisit some common views of eighteenth-century history. How far did these writers, their reasoning stiffened by Enlightenment values, promote dissident views of absolutist monarchies in Europe, and what insights did governments gain from censors’ reports into the social tensions brewing under their rule? These questions will excite dedicated researchers, graduate students, and discerning lay readers alike.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tortarolo, Edoardo

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Mediengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikation & Medien in der Politik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Propaganda & Kampagnen, Politik & Medien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medienphilosophie, Medienethik, Medienrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medientheorie, Medienanalyse
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Was Control of the Press Inevitable?.- 3. The English Paradigm.- 4. The Functional Ambiguity of Censorship and the French Enlightenment.- 5. The Royal Censors as Guarantors of Freedom of the Press.- 6. Equivocations and New Meanings.

Über Autor(innen)

Edoardo Tortarolo was born in Italy in 1956. Educated at the University of Turin, he has taught at several Italian universities, at the University of Leipzig (1997-8), and at Northwestern University (2010 and 2011). In 2006 he was a member of the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. In 2012-13 he is a member of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany, where he is writing a book on the impact of the revolutionary transition from the 1770s to 1820s on the European political and religious beliefs. He is the author of several books on the political culture of the European Enlightenment and most recently a co-editor of volume III of The Oxford History of Historical Writing (Oxford University Press 2012).