I just ran across this Smithsonian piece from 2017. Fascinating: It was the breaking news to end all breaking news—the fledgling British colonies of North America were committing treason and declaring independence. But in an era long before smartphone push alerts, TV...
information
Printers, Information, and the American Revolution
Early in my career I was very interested in the communication of information in early America. One of the first pieces I ever published was an essay on the way letters were used to spread the First Great Awakening in...
“Information Networks in the Age of Revolutions”
This is the title of a Fall series of posts at the Age of Revolutions blog. In an introductory post, Bryan Banks tells us what we can expect and sets the series in context. Here is a taste: Robert Darnton,...
The Walking Mail Carrier
The other day I was thinking about the changes in the dissemination of information and news that have occurred in my lifetime. Sunday was my birthday and, as has been the case for the better part of the last four...