Called the first modern war and our greatest national calamity, the nation's press conveyed news of the Civil War to the citizens North and South who looked to newspapers as their primary source of information. Circulation pressures, political partisanship, scarce materials, and the unyielding public appetite for the latest news all contributed to how the growing numbers of professional journalists covered the pressing political and military events during those crucial years.
For the newspaper profession the problems confronted in reporting the Civil War were as catalytic as the war itself was for American society. Many of the problems encountered in reporting later wars were present in the Civil War, but they were new problems then: communications, transportation, Federal confiscation of printing presses, censorship, military personalities, and, after mid-1863, how to tell a proud people that it was losing the war. Professor Andrews, author of The North Reports the Civil War (1955), now turns his attention to the South. He shows that Southern war reporting at its best was comparable in quality to that of the leading Northern war correspondents, that the reporting of news by the Southern press was an essential ingredient not simply of journalism but also of the Confederate propaganda effort, and that the South's newsmen contributed to the revolution of a profession, an industry, and a form of human communication. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The French and Indian War strengthened the bonds of the British colonists settled on the eastern shores as they eagerly sought news about the outcomes of the battles at Ticonderoga, Niagara, Duquesne, and Quebec, battles that would determine if America would be a French or a British colony. During the War of Independence newspapers would once again serve as a national clearing-house for reports of the first stirrings of the revolutionary movement, the gloomy first years of defeat and retreat, and finally of resurgence, triumph, and sovereignty.
Democracies cannot sustain unpopular wars. Vietnam was the most divisive for war for the American people. The enemy's tenacity was not accounted for in U.S. war plans until there was frustration in the field, skepticism in the press, and splintered support at home. After the Vietnam debacle the press's latitude to cover military action was increasingly curtailed by the military and the government, which sought to control the flow and content of the news better than they had in Vietnam by forcing reporters into supervised media pools.
Young America's next encounter with Britain came during the War of 1812, when the nation's press called for all Americans to defend their recently won independence and protect their territorial integrity and national rights. The Mexican-American War was the nation's first war of westward expansion, the reporting of which was greatly affected by the emergence of the telegraph and military censorship of news from the war zone.
Beginning with a day that would live in infamy and ending with a war-weary sigh, reporters covering war-ravaged Asia during World War II and the Korean War had to contend with a reading public unfamiliar with the region's politics and geography, and who were more interested in European events. Some of the most storied and savage fighting of the twentieth century occurred during these two conflicts, and reporters found themselves caught between the demands of truthful reporting and the need to sustain public support for the war.
"Bulla and Borchard have significantly expanded our understanding of the press, its impact, and its many roles during the Civil War. They shed light on politics, commerce, technology, public opinion, and censorship. Their book reminds us why the press matters most when a nation's fundamental freedoms are at stake."---Michael S. Sweeney, Author, The Military and the Press --Book Jacket.
