The Scopes Trial was one of the most controversial, widely reported, and well-researched court cases of the twentieth century. However, historians and other researchers have largely ignored the African American community's reaction and response to the trial, leaving out valuable perspectives on this historic event. In this article, the author…

This is an introduction to American newspapers. It starts with a history of newspapers and the tradition of American journalism that challenges authority. The article offers a description and discussion of major American newspapers and the different sections of a typical newspaper. There is also a section introducing some famous American…

The 1830s marked a lush first flowering of democratic journalism in America--participatory journalism of the sort that Alexis de Tocqueville heralded. But contrary to standard journalism history, this democratic press had nothing to do with the rise of the penny press; in fact, William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist paper, "The…

While the typical pantheon of journalism history heroes is made up almost entirely of individuals who campaigned for more governmental regulation and increased social liberalism, there is also an opposing tradition in American journalism, one based on the premise that governmental cures are in most cases worse than the diseases they are designed…

Holding enormous if controversial power as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover was sometimes controlled unexpectedly at the highest reaches of government, as illustrated by his failed attempt to obtain an Espionage Act indictment against the black press during World War II. Following anarchist bombings in 1919,…

Documents about the conditions and problems faced by the reporters of the Spanish-American War show that this war was particularly difficult to report, and that a historical misconception exists about journalism of the 1890s. Efforts to understand the reportage of the late nineteenth century in the United States are complicated by what has been…

Discusses the difficulties of publishing in the antebellum South, and describes the demise of "Uncle Remus's Magazine" in 1913 after a long struggle to keep it alive. (RB)

Analysis of the New York "Times's" financial column for the period October 13 to November 13, 1929, reveals that the column did not predict the stock market crash, that it was usually neutral in its financial analyses, and that it was more often optimistic than pessimistic in outlook. (FL)

The career of James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's older brother, provides a case study in the use of polemics for a free press. A printer who actively courted controversy, Franklin found it necessary to use an unusual variety of strategies and justifications to evade or overcome potential legal, religious, and economic restraints. He demonstrated…

The "Seattle Daily Times" and the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" from February through September 1897 were reviewed to determine their reaction to President Grover Cleveland's executive order that abruptly withdrew from further private claims huge stretches of land remaining in the public domain. Specifically, the study sought to…

An examination of book reviews of Frederic Hudson's "Journalism History in the United States from 1690 to 1872" that appeared following the book's publication in 1873 reveal sharp negative criticisms of the book that raise questions about Hudson's accuracy. (GT)

The 13 papers presented in this collection all deal with journalism and journalists from colonial America through the 19th century. The papers and their authors are: "'The Presence of God Was Much Seen in Their Assemblies': Religious News in Colonial America" (David A. Copeland); "And So They Came: The Persuasive Effect of American…

Among the elements of the press most active in the "dry-wet" prohibition debate in the 1920s and early 1930s, was "Literary Digest," a weekly current affairs review. In addition to its regular impartial coverage of the week's actions relevant to prohibition, the "Digest" contributed three national straw polls on the…

This thematic analysis of Edward L. Godkin's editorials appearing in the "Nation" seeks to reveal the major themes on which he wrote and then, by quantitative analysis, to provide some order to the themes and to study the interaction of the themes. Five hundred and twelve editorials, written over a period of 35 years and representing…

By reviewing personal correspondence, biographies, newspaper coverage of the 1940s, and interviews, this survey examines Wendell Willkie's relations with the press in general and with publishers John Cowles and Gardner (Mike) Cowles in particular. Divided into four parts, the survey begins with a review of the correspondence between Willkie and…