News and Politics in the Age of Revolution

Jeremy D. Popkin holds the William T. Bryan Chair of History at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery and A Short History of the French Revolution.

News and Politics in the Age of Revolution is a first-class study of the crucially important periodical Gazette de Leyde and of its extraordinary editor Jean Luzac, who provided through its pages some of the best, most astutely analytical political journalism of the late eighteenth century. Jeremy D. Popkin argues persuasively that the Gazette de Leyde maintained a special kind of superiority even after the revolution brought freedom of the press and hence a huge proliferation of papers onto the French market. Although the paper made no claims to represent public opinion, it certainly did its share to shape it and thus to guide events.(American Historical Review) The 'political culture' of the ancien régime is a subject that is increasingly attracting the attention of historians. Popkin's contribution to it is one they cannot afford to miss.(Journal of Modern History)