This collection of essays covers a particularly turbulent and important period in European and American history. As a vital component of print and political culture, newspapers feature prominently in many accounts of social and political change between 1750 and 1850. Yet despite the influence attributed to the newspaper press (by historians and contemporaries), not enough is known about the press itself, particularly in terms of national comparison. This collection aims to fill this gap in our knowledge by examining the press of several European countries and of North America.

In *Blackmail, scandal, and revolution*, Simon Burrows examines the activities, adventures, publications, and influence of the most venomous critics of the Bourbon monarchy - French exile libellistes who flocked to London to publish scandalous or sexually salacious pamphlets hoping to extort lavish suppression fees. Smut-mongering pamphleteers are prominent figures in the recent historiography of the French revolution. Many historians now contend that nihilistic, 'Grub Street' authors sapped the foundations of the monarchy with their 'desacralising' and frequently pornographic attacks on...