by Jeremy D. Popkin (Author)
As television screens across America showed Chinese students blocking government tanks in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and missiles searching their targets in Baghdad, the connection between media and revolution seemed more significant than ever. In this book, thirteen prominent scholars examine the role of the communication media in revolutionary crises -- from the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s to the upheaval in the former Czechoslovakia.
Their central question: Do the media in fact have a real influence on the unfolding of revolutionary crises? On this question, the contributors diverge, some arguing that the press does not bring about revolution but is part of the revolutionary process, others downplaying the role of the media.
Essays focus on areas as diverse as pamphlet literature, newspapers, political cartoons, and the modern electronic media. The authors' wide-ranging views form a balanced and perceptive examination of the impact of the media on the making of history.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 15 Mar 1997
ISBN 10: 0813118999
ISBN 13: 9780813118994
New insights on vital events and demonstrates how history can contribute to the development of media theory. -- Choice
The authors all advocate the intriguing theory that revolutionary crises coincide with sudden changes in the media system of the society in which they occur. -- Library Journal
A timely collection on a topic of considerable importance. This volume will be an important point of reference on the topic for some time to come. -- Paul R. Hanson
Brings together substantive research on the role of the press in major revolutionary moments and periods in early modern and modern European and American history. The topic and the approach are highly significant. -- Timothy Cheek
Jeremy D. Popkin is professor of history at the University of Kentucky.