Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain

By the end of the seventeenth century the most effective means of persuasion and communication was the pamphlet, which created influential moral and political communities of readers, and thus formed a ‘public sphere’ of popular, political opinion. This book is a unique history of the printed pamphlet in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain and traces its rise as an imaginative and often eloquent literary form. Using a long-term perspective and a broad range of historical, bibliographical and textual evidence, the book sketches a complex definition of a ‘pamphlet’, showing the coherence of the literary form, the diversity of genres and imaginative devices employed by pamphleteers; and it explores readers’ relationship with pamphlets and how both influenced politics. Individual chapters examine topics such as Elizabethan religious controversy, the book trade, the distribution of books and pamphlets, pamphleteering in the English Civil War, women and gender, and print in the Restoration.

• This book offers a unique guide to the pamphlet form over a period of 250 years • Uses long-term perspectives on both history and literary culture, and combines political history with the history of the book trade and literary criticism • Illustrated with over 40 half-tones, including images of rare pamphlets

List of illustrations; List of figures; Preface; Notes on conventions; Prologue: changing experiences, 1588, 1642, 1688; 1. What is a pamphlet?; 2. ‘How loudely they cry’: Marprelate, purity and paper bullets; 3. ‘Stitchers, Binders, Stationers, Hawkers’: printing practices and the book trade; 4. ‘A mongrel race of Mercuries lately sprung up’: the business of news, c. 1580–1660; 5. ‘From words to blowes’: Scottish origins of the explosion of print, 1637–42; 6. ‘This bookish partiall formall fierce factious animositous age’: printing revolutions, 1641–60; 7. ‘Speaking abroad’: gender, female authorship and pamphleteering; 8. ‘A Bog of Plots, Sham-plots, Subordinations and Perjuries’: pamphlets and polemic in the Restoration; Epilogue; Index of names and titles; General index.

‘… rich and well-written … Raymond shows an impressive command of the diverse fields central to the history of the pamphlet …’ Times Literary Supplement

‘… this book … will undoubtedly become a reference point for all those interested in the genesis of public opinion as well as in the history of print. It will also give an excellent background to students and more advanced scholars who are interested in early modern history and literature.’ Cercles

‘Raymond’s argument is … convincing in terms of establishing pamphlets and pamphleteering as an influential literary form that needs to be acknowledged in the broader sphere. His work is as ever a pleasure to read … This book would be particularly useful for students studying literary aspects of the press, and makes a valuable contribution to the growing library of work dedicated to the growth of popular political consciousness in early modern England.’ Renaissance Journal

‘I recommend Raymond‘s book to any person studying any aspect of the print culture or pamphlets or the growth of a public sphere in England.’ Sixteenth Century Journal

‘Joel Raymond’s study, ranging wide and going deep, should be a vade-mecum for any historian drawn to the complexities of the inveterately scribacious period.\' Literature and History