Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America - Couverture rigide

Frasca, Ralph R.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0826216145 ISBN 13 : 9780826216144

Editeur : University of Missouri Press, 2006

Synopsis

In ""Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network"", Ralph Frasca explores Franklin's partnerships and business relationships with printers and their impact on the early American press. Besides analyzing the structure of the network, Frasca addresses two equally important questions: How did Franklin establish this informal group? And what were his motivations for doing so? This network grew to be the most prominent and geographically extensive of the early American printing organizations, lasting from the 1720s until the 1790s. Stretching from New England to the West Indies, it comprised more than two dozen members, including such memorable characters as the Job-like James Parker, the cunning Francis Childs, the malcontent Benjamin Mecom, the vengeful Benjamin Franklin Bache, the steadfast David Hall, and the deranged Anthony Armbruster. Franklin's network altered practices in both the European and American colonial printing trades by providing capital and political influence to set up workers as partners and associates. As an economic entity and a source of mutual support, the network was integral to the success of many eighteenth-century printers, as well as to the development of American journalism. Frasca argues that Franklin's principal motivation in establishing the network was his altruistic desire to assist Americans in their efforts to be virtuous. Using a variety of sources, Frasca shows that Franklin viewed virtuousness as a path to personal happiness and social utility. Franklin intended for his network of printers to teach virtue and encourage its adoption. The network would disseminate his moral truths to a mass audience, and this would in turn further his own political, economic, and moral ambitions. By exploring Franklin's printing network and addressing these questions, this work fills a substantial void in the historical treatment of Franklin's life. Amateur historians and professional scholars alike will welcome Frasca's clear and capable treatment of this subject.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

RALPH FRASCA is Professor of Mass Communications at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Saturday Globe and coauthor of The War of 1812 and the Mexican American War.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Missouri Press
• Date d'édition: 2006
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0826216145
• ISBN 13: 9780826216144
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 312
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible