Consisting of twenty-eight chapters and numerous case studies the volume examines the history of the British and Irish press from its seventeenth-century beginnings up until the end of the eighteenth century. Five core chapters regard the Business of the Press (including advertising), Production and Distribution, Legal Constraints and Opportunities, Readers and Readerships, and the Emerging Identities and Communities of news writers and journalists. Other contributions focus on particular national realities such as those in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The contributions examine features relating to the production, transmission and reception of not just news publications but also the more specialised press such as periodical essays, women's periodicals, literary and review journalism, medical journals, and the criminal and religious press. As much early modern news was a transnational phenomenon the volume includes studies on European and trans-Atlantic networks as well as the role of translation in news transmission and output.
