Print and Public Politics in Seventeenth-Century England

One of the most invigorating aspects of recent historiography regarding early modern political culture has been the determination, led by critics of 'revisionism',to revive interest in print culture. It is argued that printed texts reveal a less consensual world than revisionists suggest, that print was integral to public politics, and that pamphlets and newspapers ought to supplement, rather than be replaced by, manuscript sources. Ultimately, attempts to recover the vibrancy of political debate in early modern Britain have attracted scholars to the existence of ` Grub Street' practices within the world of polemic and news, and of a 'public sphere' of the kind outlined by Jurgen Habermas. This piece explores the validity of such concepts, and expresses caution about their applicability to the seventeenth century, while nevertheless suggesting alternative ways in which print culture may contribute to the post-revisionist agenda.