The Newspaper and the Historian - Wikisource, the free online library (2024)

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"Is there anything in the paper, Sir?"

"Anything in the paper! All the world is in the paper. Why, Madam , if you will but read what is written in the Times of this very day, it is enough for a year's history, and ten times as much meditation ."—Thackeray.

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Copyright, 1923
By Oxford University Press
American Branch

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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PREFACE

Peccavi should be the opening word of many prefaces. A consciousness of much left undone that ought to have been done, and of much done that ought not to have been done, detracts from the pleasure that otherwise might have been felt in passing from one piece of work to another. But the delinquent and offender may at least be heard in his own defense, and state what his object has and has not been.

The object of writing this book has been to discover if possible the advantages and the limitations of the periodical press, especially the newspaper, considered as historical material, and thus to determine the extent of its usefulness to the historian in his efforts to reconstruct the past. It therefore attempts to give an analysis of the component parts of the press, with a sufficient number of examples to illustrate or to justify the conclusions that have been deduced.

It is not the object of the book to give a history, even a fragmentary one, either of the newspaper or of journalism. It is not to be considered a brief for the press, or an indictment of the press, ore a "presentation of both sides of the case"; in a sense, it does not concern itself at all with the press, since the person ultimately in mind has been the student of history. But while it shows the pitfalls the historian must encounter in his use of the newspaper, it may also incidentally indicate how unnecessary has been the alarm constantly raised through the blanket arraignment of the press, and how inherent are the dangers found in the general statement.

The present volume considers the essential characteristics of the newspaper as they affect the historian and as they are made known by the newspaper itself, unaffected by official control. It considers the press only on its esoteric side. If in the discussion of the relations of the newspaper and the historian the newspaper has occupied the foreground, it is hoped that it will be found that all lines have converged on the historian in the background.

​Many extracts from the newspapers themselves have been given since the newspaper is both consciously and unconsciously its own best record of its aimsand its methods of attaining them. Since it is essential to the purpose of the book to consider testimony, to weigh evidence, and to arrive at decisions, it is necessary to hear the evidence given by the press itself. A large number of the citations have been taken from the New York City papers, in part for reasons of convenience, and in part because news-collecting associations have standardized news, and advertising clubs and fashion have in a measure standardized advertisem*nts. Illustrative newspapers, however, from practically every state in the Union, and many from other countries, have been examined, and it is thus hoped that no undue basis will be found for the charge of generalizing from insufficient data.

A companion volume now in press is entitled The Newspaper and Authority. This considers the advantages and the limitations of the press considered with reference to external control. The questions of regulation of the press, all forms of censorship of the press, freedom of the press, libel laws, press bureaus, press publicity, and press propaganda suggest conditions where the press is limited by an authority outside of itself. This exoteric side of the press and all its relations to external authority must be examined by the historian as well as the limitations arising from conditions within the press itself.

My obligations to others seem out of all proportion to the results visible in the book. They include a group of colleagues and friends, V. Barbour, L. F. Brown, E. Ellery, I. C. Thallon, and C. M. Thompson, all of whom have read the manuscript wholly or in part, and have at all times lent a listening ear as each new interest in the subject has developed. A group of friends, M. L. Berkemeier, R. L. Lowrie, H. Rottschaefer, and E. M. Rushmore, have given untiring help in the collection of material. Friends have sent to the Vassar College Library special copies of newspapers from all over the world; they can not all be named individually, but special gratitude goes to K. B. Béziat for newspapers from France covering a wide range of in terests and localities during 1914–1915; to Charles Upson Clark for copies of Italian papers during the war; to Burges Johnson for ​the material collected for the Vassar College Library in 1918; and to A. L. Walker for many consecutive numbers and special copies of Greek newspapers. H. M. Bartlett and M. Newcomer have contributed copies of inscriptions in London in memory of British war correspondents. C. Saunders has been a friendly adviser.

Special acknowledgment must gratefully be made to L. F. Brown for the preparation of the Biographical Notes and to Henry S. Fraser for making the Index and reading the proof. My obligations to F. G. Davenport, M. Relf, E. Rickert, Frank G . Royce, A. Underhill, B. C. Wilcox, and President Henry Noble MacCracken have been great and constant.

The courtesy of librarians in arranging inter-library loans has made possible the use of books loaned the Vassar College Library from the libraries of Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and Yale Universities, the New Bedford Free Public Library, the New York State Library, and the Library of Congress. Frequent use has also been made of the important collections of the New York Public Library. An abiding sense of appreciation for such kindnesses must remain with every one who has had similar opportunities.

All those to whom acknowledgment has directly or indirectly been made are absolved from all responsibility for errors of omission or commission; the ultimate liability for such errors must rest with the writer alone. The closing word must be peccavi.

L. M. S.

Poughkeepsie, New York,
⁠April 23, 1923. ​

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