Description
In the 1820s and 1830s Britain, the world's first industrialised nation, developed the world's first mass print media. This paper examines this wider development via a historical analysis of "useful knowledge" - a widespread term which, as will be seen, acted as a prism for a wide range of hopes, fears, and interests. Although there had been “useful” and “instructive” literature before, in the 1820s and 1830s there was a surge in such literature, facilitated for the most part by an explosion of cheap periodicals. In particular, the start of the 1830s saw the rise of a breathtaking novelty, the penny magazine. This paper investigates the historical development of “useful knowledge” as a category of knowledge in this crucial period of print development, uncovering the connections between a seemingly disparate set of texts that operated across a mix of markets, price points, and political views. In particular, I argue that the political and economic effects of “useful knowledge” can be understood separately. On the one hand, the political intentions of useful knowledge to mollify, contain, or mould the working classes and assuage the anxieties of the upper and middle classes was often explicit and vigorously opposed by radical writers and editors. On the other hand, the economic effect was twofold: first, the success of cheap periodicals on both sides of the political spectrum paved the way for the commercial enterprises that dominated the periodical market from the 1840s onwards; secondly, the non-teleological and pluralistic proliferation of a wide range of knowledge furthered the reach and longevity of what Mokyr calls the “Industrial Enlightenment”.| Period | 11 Sept 2024 → 13 Sept 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 12th International ESPRit Conference: Periodicals: S.T.E.A.M. Ahead! |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Urbino, ItalyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |