Significance of the Printed Word in Early America

The American press played a significant role in the transference of European civilization to America and in the shaping of American society. Settlement entrepreneurs used the press to persuade Europeans to come to America. Immigrants brought religious tracts with them to spread Puritanism and other doctrines to Native Americans and the white population. The colonists used the press to openly debate issues, print advertisements for business, and as a source of entertainment. But what did the colonists actually think about the press? The author has gathered information from primary sources to explore this question. Diaries and journals reveal how the colonists valued local news, often preferring American news to European news. This concentrated focus upon colonial attitudes and thoughts toward the press covers the period of colonial settlement from the 1500s through 1765.This book will appeal to scholars and students of American history and communication history. Primary documents expressing the colonists' thoughts will also be of interest to scholars and students of American thought, American philosophy, and early American literature and writing.

?If a program has an undergraduate or graduate course devoted to the press in early America, this book may be suitable as a text. However, anyone desiring to learn about the printing press and its impact on the development of early America should read this well-written and informative book.?-Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, ?Students and scholars of the early history of mass media in the British-American colonies will be interested in this study. Students of early American print culture as well as those interested in a survey of American religion and the mass media will find a clearly written introduction to these areas and primary writings in The Significance of the Printed Word in Early America. The work would help supplement an upper-level undergraduate class as well as graduate survey courses.?-The Eighteenth Century A Current Biography, "If a program has an undergraduate or graduate course devoted to the press in early America, this book may be suitable as a text. However, anyone desiring to learn about the printing press and its impact on the development of early America should read this well-written and informative book."-Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, "Students and scholars of the early history of mass media in the British-American colonies will be interested in this study. Students of early American print culture as well as those interested in a survey of American religion and the mass media will find a clearly written introduction to these areas and primary writings in The Significance of the Printed Word in Early America. The work would help supplement an upper-level undergraduate class as well as graduate survey courses."-The Eighteenth Century A Current Biography

JULIE HEDGEPETH WILLIAMS is Assistant Professor at Samford University in Birmingham-Alabama, where she teaches journalism history and media writing. She is the co-author of The Early American Press, 1690-1783 (Greenwood, 1994) which received the Choice Outstanding Academic Book award in 1995.