Introduction

This introductory chapter sets the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century press and periodical activity within broad contexts, provides an account of the social, economic and political changes affecting the history of the newspapers and periodical press within this period, as well as noting the manner in which past and more recent studies of press and media history have influenced our understanding of this period. The chapter also includes case studies of five key years and periods in the development of the press: 1643, 1671, 1701-1710, 1730, 1789-1793.