Researching the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press: Case Studies

Extending the work of The Routledge Handbook to Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals and Newspapers, this volume provides a critical introduction and case studies that illustrate cutting-edge approaches to periodicals research, as well as an overview of recent developments in the field. The twelve chapters model diverse approaches and methodologies for research on nineteenth-century periodicals. Each case study is contextualized within one of the following broad areas of research: single periodicals, individual journalists, gender issues, periodical networks, genre, the relationship between periodicals, transnational/transatlantic connections, technologies of printing and illustration, links within a single periodical, topical subjects, science and periodicals, and imperialism and periodicals. Contributors incorporate first-person accounts of how they conducted their research and provide specific examples of how they gained access to primary sources, as well as the methods they used to analyze the materials.

The 2018 winner of the Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize.

The Committee describes the focus of the book on methodology and case studies as fresh and original, and useful for both experienced scholars and those new to the field.

Overall. Case Studies suggests new ways of reading canonical authors, new unerstandings of the interprentation of the personal and the public, and an admirable energy in engaging with the structures of national and transnational periodical discourses that are clearly implicated in maintaining soft power within societies

– Brian Maidment, Liverpool John Moores University