Prelude to independence;: The newspaper war on Britain, 1764-1776

Arthur Schlesinger's "Prelude to Independence" is a really great study of the role and impect of the American press in the years just preceeding the American Revolution. The press of the colonies was far from the lapdog establishment press of today. The patriot press began in 1764 with the Sugar Act castigating and attacking the English Parliment for their assumptions of power over the colonial legislatures. From 1764 to 1776 the press is shown in it's true glory. All of the tyrannical legislation passed by Parliament is attacked as " destroying the rights of Englishmen", and the "sovereignty of the people". These newspapers, the Massachusetts SPY, the Connecticut Courant, the Boston Gazette, and Evening Post, all raised the bar of public debate from a relatively small protest against taxes to an in depth and profound debate over the rights of men, religious and political liberty, and republican government. In this volume you will see a press which is not afraid to critisize their political leaders in the colonies and Great Britian. Overall a very inspiring and positive book on what a free people can do when aroused from their slumber.