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The Great Exchange: Making the news in early modern Europe, comes out in July, but I’ve been sent a review copy already. I haven’t read very much, but so far it’s a lively and informative read. The author, Joad Raymond Wren, is at pains to point out that this is not a book about the history of newspapers, but that of news. He maintains that the real history of news is not about a chronology of technological inventions.
It seems very interesting, including as it does pamphlets and even at least one diary or chronicle. Jan de Boer kept a diary in which he recorded news as well as personal activities.
So far, I’ve learnt that a few hundred years ago editors were more like collators. They would gather together bnits and pieces of news from various sources and writers and produce a pamphlet. There was no copyright or editorial stance as such.
Anyway, I’ll have more to say about this book once I’ve read rather more of it and my review has been published in Teach Secondary magazine.