The Origins of the Popular Press
H.J. Perkin traces the development of England's long love affair with newspapers.
No historical myth dies harder than the belief that the modern popular press grew up in direct response to the introduction of State education in 1870. In the words of Lord Northcliffe’s latest biographer, “Forster’s Education Act had made the acquisition of the hitherto privileged arts of reading and writing universally compulsory, and a Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, had made them free of all costs to parents.
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