The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself
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Overview
“A fascinating account of the gathering and dissemination of news from the end of the Middle Ages to the French Revolution” and the rise of the newspaper (Glenn Altschuler, The Huffington Post).
Long before the invention of printing, let alone the daily newspaper, people wanted to stay informed. In the pre-industrial era, news was mostly shared through gossip, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, ballads, and the first news-sheets. In this groundbreaking history, renowned historian Andrew Pettegree tracks the evolution of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries, examining the impact of news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public.
The Invention of News sheds light on who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and for journalists to be trustworthy; and people’s changing sense of themselves and their communities as they experienced newly opened windows on the world.
“This expansive view of news and how it reached people will be fascinating to readers interested in communication and cultural history.” —Library Journal (starred review)
Long before the invention of printing, let alone the daily newspaper, people wanted to stay informed. In the pre-industrial era, news was mostly shared through gossip, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, ballads, and the first news-sheets. In this groundbreaking history, renowned historian Andrew Pettegree tracks the evolution of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries, examining the impact of news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public.
The Invention of News sheds light on who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and for journalists to be trustworthy; and people’s changing sense of themselves and their communities as they experienced newly opened windows on the world.
“This expansive view of news and how it reached people will be fascinating to readers interested in communication and cultural history.” —Library Journal (starred review)
Winner of the 2015 Goldsmith Book Prize given by the Harvard Kennedy School, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy
“At this moment of rapid change in news media, Andrew Pettegree’s learned and wide-ranging survey of five centuries and three continents has an unusually contemporary resonance for a major work of history. His message is cheering: human curiosity is intimately linked to human freedom, and is inclined to get its own way.” —Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, 1490–1700
“Andrew Pettegree has given us a splendid new account of the flow of information and opinion in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century. From postal systems and tavern talk to handwritten commercial letters and the emergence of the periodical press—Pettegree tells it all, with rich and entertaining example and luminous reference to Europe’s political and religious history. As we face the communication revolution of our own time, The Invention of News is an essential guide to matters of truth and trust in our hungry quest for information.” —Natalie Zemon Davis
“The news is out: Andrew Pettegree writes the big ones best.” —Steven Ozment, author of A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People
“Some people forecast—I think wrongly—the death of newspapers. Andrew Pettegree, in a groundbreaking study, investigates their birth. This fine historian has written an intriguing and comprehensive study of the early centuries of the press in ten countries. It deserves to be widely read by journalists and all who are interested in their profession.” —Lord Patten
“This is a wide-ranging study, but a good one, and one that makes clear the rise of journalism was anything but predictable.” —Chris Sterling, CBQ
“At this moment of rapid change in news media, Andrew Pettegree’s learned and wide-ranging survey of five centuries and three continents has an unusually contemporary resonance for a major work of history. His message is cheering: human curiosity is intimately linked to human freedom, and is inclined to get its own way.” —Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, 1490–1700
“Andrew Pettegree has given us a splendid new account of the flow of information and opinion in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century. From postal systems and tavern talk to handwritten commercial letters and the emergence of the periodical press—Pettegree tells it all, with rich and entertaining example and luminous reference to Europe’s political and religious history. As we face the communication revolution of our own time, The Invention of News is an essential guide to matters of truth and trust in our hungry quest for information.” —Natalie Zemon Davis
“The news is out: Andrew Pettegree writes the big ones best.” —Steven Ozment, author of A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People
“Some people forecast—I think wrongly—the death of newspapers. Andrew Pettegree, in a groundbreaking study, investigates their birth. This fine historian has written an intriguing and comprehensive study of the early centuries of the press in ten countries. It deserves to be widely read by journalists and all who are interested in their profession.” —Lord Patten
“This is a wide-ranging study, but a good one, and one that makes clear the rise of journalism was anything but predictable.” —Chris Sterling, CBQ
- Title: The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself
- Author: Andrew Pettegree
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 453
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780300206227, 9780300212761, 0300212763, 0300206224
- Resource ID: LLS:9780300206227
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T19:53:27Z
Andrew Pettegree is professor of modern history, University of St. Andrews, and founding director of the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. He lives in Fife, Scotland.