Print culture and political participation in seventeenth century England

这个专题项目通过强调“印刷文化”和“印刷革命”的重要性，重新思考与现代早期英国政治参与有关的问题。它展示了国家政治生活在多大程度上可能是“大众”的，因为那些与议会和政府互动的人包括绅士和贵族精英之外和之下的人。它将议会事务与威斯敏斯特之外的世界联系起来，甚至进入英格兰最偏远的角落，打破了“精英”和“大众”政治之间的区别，以及“社会”和“政治”历史之间的区别。这本书概述了廉价印刷扩大和深化政治民族的方式，促进了国家政治文化的发展，以及它在改变公众对“时事”的认识方面的作用。它还将展示印刷品如何在人们参与政治、与领导人和代表互动的方式上带来质的变化，以及个人和利益集团在多大程度上参与威斯敏斯特的商业活动。其结果是将“印刷文化”彻底融入17世纪的全国公共生活，首次确立了印刷对日常政治事务的实际影响，并在英国历史的关键时期对公共政治的性质进行了根本性的重新评估。这项工作的关键是需要考虑到博学的论文，知识分子和神职人员的工作，并没有像一般认为的那样主导早期现代印刷文化的证据，并且有必要探索印刷类型的全部范围，从传单和海报到请愿书和游说文件，以及报纸和小册子。17世纪出现的大量印刷材料的重要性，其中大部分被学者们所忽视，只能通过一种方法来理解，这种方法加深了我们对人们阅读印刷文化的方式（在分布、消费、可及性、反应方面）的理解，以及对印刷提供的信息和分析的本质的理解，尤其是在破坏官方保密方面。此外，本项目开发的方法还考虑了公众作为生产者而不仅仅是消费者参与印刷品的程度，以及他们能够与政治机构互动的方式，在联系方面（通过请愿和游说），以及在与统治者和政府发展新型关系方面，尤其是通过迫使人们重新思考代表和政治责任的本质。全书强调，不仅要承认企业家、专业作家和记者主导了文具和印刷行业，而且要承认公众也参与了印刷品的生产和利用。他们写小册子，提交请愿书，制作或多或少短暂的政治文学作品，他们还对早期现代报纸采取了积极主动的态度，他们对报纸内容的影响越来越大。这些发现的含义是，为了充分理解印刷在17世纪中叶的日常政治生活中所扮演的角色，有必要详细探索手稿收藏和私人文件。基于在英国和美国广泛的档案研究，这本书展示了印刷类型的中心地位，其中公众成员参与威斯敏斯特政治的方式，并在此过程中揭示了迄今为止未知的印刷项目的未开发来源，从行政文件到请愿书，游说文件和小册子。

This monograph project rethinks issues relating to political participation in early modern England, by highlighting the importance of 'print culture' and the 'print revolution'. It demonstrates the extent to which it was possible for national political life to be 'popular', in that those who interacted with parliaments and governments included people beyond and below the gentry and aristocratic elite. It connects parliamentary affairs with the world far beyond Westminster and even into the most remote corners of England, breaking down distinctions between 'elite' and 'popular' politics, and between 'social' and 'political' history. The book outlines the ways in which cheap print broadened and deepened the political nation, and facilitated the development of a national political culture, as well as its role in transforming public awareness of 'current affairs'. It will also show how print brought about a qualitative change in the ways in which people could engage with politics, and interacted with their leaders and representatives, and in the extent to which individuals and interest groups involved themselves in business at Westminster. The result will be a thorough incorporation of 'print culture' into nationwide public life during the seventeenth century, establishing for the first time the practical impact of print upon everyday political affairs, and a fundamental reassessment of the nature of public politics during a critical period of English history. Crucial to this work is the need to take into account evidence that erudite treatises, and the work of intellectuals and clerics, did not dominate early modern print culture to the extent that is generally assumed, and that it is necessary to explore the full range of print genres, from handbills and posters to petitions and lobby documents, as well as newspapers and pamphlets. The significance of the vast amount of printed material that emerged during the seventeenth century, much of which has been ignored by scholars, can only be understood by means of a methodology which deepens our understanding of the ways in which people read print culture (in terms of distribution, consumption, accessibility, response), and of the nature of the information and analysis which print provided, not least in terms of undermining official secrecy. Moreover, the methodology developed by this project also considers the degree to which members of the public could engage with print as producers rather than merely as consumers, and the ways in which they were able to interact with political institutions, in terms of making contact (through petitions and lobbying), and in terms of developing new kinds of relationship with rulers and governments, not least by forcing people to rethink the nature of representation and political accountability. Throughout the book, emphasis is placed upon the importance of acknowledging not only that entrepreneurs and professional writers and journalists dominated the world of stationers and printers, but also that members of the public became involved in the production and exploitation of print. They wrote pamphlets, submitted petitions, and produced more or less ephemeral pieces of political literature, and they also adopted a pro-active approach to early modern newspapers, whose content they were increasingly able to influence. The implication of such findings is that, in order to appreciate fully the role which print played in everyday political life in the mid-seventeenth century, it is necessary to explore in detail manuscript collections and private papers. Based upon extensive archival research in Britain and America, this book demonstrates the centrality of print genres to the ways in which members of the public engaged with Westminster politics, and reveals in the process an untapped source of hitherto unknown printed items, from administrative papers to petitions, lobby documents, and pamphlets.