The Rise and Fall of the British Press takes an artful look at the past, present and immediate future of the printed newspaper. Temple offers a thought-provoking account of the evolution of Britain’s news consumption across the centuries, situating it within significant social, cultural and political currents of the time. Chapters cover: The impact of key technological developments; from the birth of print and the introduction of television, to the rise of the internet and digital media; The ever-shifting power play between political parties and the press; The notion of the ‘public sphere’ and how newspapers have influenced it over the decades; The role of news media during some of Europe’s most significant historical events, such as the French Revolution, the First and Second World Wars and the Suez crisis; The aftermath of the Leveson inquiry and the question of increased media regulation; The successes and failures of important media players, including Baron Beaverbrook and Lord Northcliffe in the nineteenth century, and Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the book, parallels are drawn between current issues impacting on the press and society and those from previous decades, further illuminating the role, both historic and ongoing, of the news media in Britain. Temple concludes the book by looking to the future of print journalism, calling for a reassessment of its role in the twenty-first century, redefining what journalism should be and reasserting its value in society today. This far-reaching analysis will be an invaluable resource for both students and researchers of journalism and media studies.

This book argues that there is an important connection between ethical resistance to British imperialism and the ethical discovery of gay rights. It examines the roots of liberal resistance in Britain and resistance to patriarchy in the USA, showing the importance of fighting the demands of patriarchal manhood and womanhood to countering imperialism. Advocates of feminism and gay rights are key because they resist the gender binary's role in rationalizing sexism and homophobia. The connection between the rise of gay rights and the fall of empire illuminates questions of the meaning of democracy and universal human rights as shared human values that have appeared since World War II. The book casts doubt on the thesis that arguments for gay rights must be extrinsic to democracy and reflect Western values. To the contrary, gay rights arise from within liberal democracy, and its critics polemically use such opposition to cover and rationalize their own failures of democracy.

Politics and the Rise of the Press compares the rise of the newspaper press in Britain and France, and assesses how it influenced political life and political culture. From its social, economic and political sources, to its importance for the middling ranks in eighteenth-century British society, and its transformation after the French revolution. This detailed, comparative account, which also contains considerable original research on the early Scottish press, will be of value to all students of French and British history of the period.