'The tyranny of printers': newspaper politics in the early American republic

Although frequently attacked for their partisanship and undue political influence,the American media of today are objective and relatively ineffectual compared to their counterpartsof two hundred years ago.

From the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, newspapers werethe republic's central political institutions, working components of the party system rather thancommentators on it.

The Tyranny of Printers narrates the rise of thisnewspaper-based politics, in which editors became the chief party spokesmen and newspaperoffices often served as local party headquarters.

Beginning when Thomas Jefferson enlisted aPhiladelphia editor to carry out his battle with Alexander Hamilton for the soul of the new republic(and got caught trying to cover it up), the centrality of newspapers in political life gainedmomentum after Jefferson's victory in 1800, which was widely credited to a superior network ofpapers.

Jeffrey L. Pasley tells the rich story of this political culture and its culmination inJacksonian democracy, enlivening his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragiccareers of individual editors.