BOOK LAUNCH: Print, politics and the provincial press in modern Britain

Edited by Ian Cawood and Lisa Peters

This is a free event, book ticket here.

This event marks the launch of the new CPHC book series 'Printing History and Culture' with Peter Lang Ltd, international academic publishers. It also sees the publication of the first volume in the series, Print, politics and the provincial press in modern Britain.

The evening will include brief talks by the editors and authors, followed by a handling session in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham. The evening will conclude with a wine reception.

About the series: This series unites the allied fields of printing history and print culture, and is therefore concerned not only with the design, production and distribution of printed material but also its consumption, reception and impact. It includes the histories of the machinery and equipment, of the industry and its personnel, of the printing processes, the design of its artefacts (books, newspapers, journals, fine prints, and ephemera) and with the related arts and crafts, including calligraphy, type-founding, typography, papermaking, bookbinding, illustration, and publishing. It also covers the cultural context and environment in which print was produced and consumed.

About the book: The provincial newspaper was read by peers, politicians and the proletariat alike. It is striking, however, how limited a range of newspapers and journals are offered for analysis in most historical studies of the political media in modern Britain. The predominance of the London political press and Punch in academic discourse appears to derive largely from the easy availability of these papers and journals to modern scholars rather than their actual distribution and popularity. Consequently there has been a distinct lack of attention given to the British regional press by historians hitherto. This collection aims to correct this imbalance by investigating the development, maturation and persistence of the provincial political press in the British Isles in the modern era. Chapters covering aspects of the Irish, Yorkshire, Welsh, Scottish and Midlands political press are included to ensure a representative geographical spread of provincial Britain. These chapters cover previously neglected aspects of print culture, political literacy and reading practices across regions of Britain in the late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to offer an introduction to research in this burgeoning field of study.