The Evolution of the Government's Participation in and Management of the Public Sphere in Late-seventeenth and Early-eighteenth Century England
Author: Aaron VanHorn
Publisher:
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 126
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries saw England experience a dramatic shift; this transformation took place in both the public sphere and print culture. It also occurred in the government's involvement in and management of these two theaters of the social landscape. To grasp this change and gauge how it happened over time this thesis analyzes four instructive events, or in some cases series of events, and the changing political and cultural contexts surrounding them to demonstrate the government's evolving involvement in and management of the public sphere through print media during this period. The specific episodes of interest are the Popish Plot and subsequent Exclusion Crisis, the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, the Sacheverell "incident" and its aftermath, and the peace campaign that brought about the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Each is examined both quantitatively and qualitatively using a combination of primary sources in the form of newspapers, pamphlets, and other pieces of print media and secondary analysis. This investigation demonstrates that the importance of the public sphere and of print expanded during this timeframe and that to achieve its goals and maintain political stability the government had to expand its participation in and management of these emergent spaces of power brokering -- a task it successfully did by 1713.
