Revolutionary news: Reporting civil unrest in 1640s London and Naples

  • Brendan Dooley
  • , Davide Boerio

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingsChapterpeer-review

Abstract

News travelled quickly during the troubled 1640s in Europe and had almost palpable effects. But how did news travel, and who got it first? Weekly handwritten newsletters transmitted from sites of crisis to the Tuscan Grand Ducal court and elsewhere, are a still under-used source. This chapter analyses the similarities and differences between weekly handwritten news reporting about two places, London and Naples, both of which experienced regime-changing commotions in the 1640s, among others similarly afflicted at the time. More concretely, we will be comparing and contrasting these two cases of popular unrest resulting in the creation of new forms of government, and the linguistic ramifications of this in the realms of diction, word usage, sentiment and sense of belonging.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDiscourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture
EditorsClaudia Claridge
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages108-132
Number of pages25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Publication series

NameDiscourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture
Volume105
ISSN (Print)1569-9463

Keywords

  • crisis
  • England
  • Florence
  • handwritten newsletters
  • history
  • media history
  • Naples
  • revolution

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