Reviewed by:

• The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 2: Expansion and Evolution, 1800–1900 ed. by David Finkelstein, and: The Periodical Press in Nineteenth-Century Ireland by Elizabeth Tilley
• Mary McCartney (bio)

Transcribing a thorough history of the British and Irish press over an entire century may seem like a daunting task, yet David Finkelstein completes it with aplomb. When faced with such a project, one may wonder what constitutes “the press.” The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press contests the notion that periodicals and newspapers should be studied separately. In the editorial introduction to the collection, Finkelstein claims to “challenge the artificial divide that in the past has governed the use of the terms ‘the press’ . . . and ‘the periodical press’” (8). Indeed, this volume takes a multifaceted approach, curating an array of chapters focused on English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh print media consumed within and, importantly, beyond major metropolitan areas. It aims to draw attention to spaces that are often overlooked, such as regional and local news outlets; the Welsh-, Irish-, and Scots Gaelic-language press; and imperial discourse in countries like India. Finkelstein’s ground-breaking work is the first study in the field to examine the British and Irish press together through this wide lens.

Despite its broad scope, the collection dexterously moves from general context to specialized content. The substantial volume is organized into six sections with twenty-six key chapters accompanied by twenty-four case [End Page 625] studies. Forty-eight experts in the field contribute to the text. The first five sections lay the groundwork for understanding how the press operated in the marketplace, providing background on economics, production and distribution, readership, communities, and legal structures. The sixth and longest section spans twenty themed chapters, each highlighting a specialized press genre. Throughout the volume, illustrations effectively enrich the reader’s understanding of the associated text. For instance, Rose Roberto’s “The Evolution of Image-Making Industries and the Mid-to Late Victorian Press” uses visual examples to help the reader differentiate between wood cuts and wood engravings, and Elizabeth Tilley’s “Comics, Cartoons, and the Illustrated Press” uses full-color images to highlight the importance of illustrations in the press.

The first section explains how the economics of the publishing industry were affected by government taxes and control. Howard Cox and Simon Mowatt reinforce Finkelstein’s intent to simultaneously study periodicals and newspapers, observing for example that newspaper publishing flourished outside of metropolitan areas while magazine publishing remained localized in major cities during the second half of the nineteenth century. The second section covers the evolution of print technology and image-making. Helen S. Williams provides an in-depth account of how machinery, typesetting, illustrations, and raw materials were forced to evolve to meet the demands of the growing literary marketplace, an account that leads seamlessly into Rose Roberto’s chapter on image-making. Roberto carefully explains the different methods used to publish images from lithography to electrotyping, ultimately contending that “knowledge was spread by images that could be easily reproduced” (124). The next two sections concentrate on the people consuming and producing the press: readers and publishers. Paul Raphael Rooney opens the third section by ruminating on where and how print media was consumed. Noting that studying readership “presents something of a challenge for the press historian,” he argues that there is still much work to be done and ends the chapter with suggestions for future scholarship (146). The fourth section looks at the growth of professions within the publishing industry. As Joanne Shattock states, by the end of the century journalism became “a viable and respectable career for writers” (169). The fifth section explores how the legal and publishing realms were interdependent. “On the one hand the law provided the framework within which the press thrived; on the other the press normalised the workings...

审核人：

• 英国和爱尔兰出版社的《爱丁堡历史》，第2卷：扩展与演变，1800-1900年版。大卫·芬克尔斯坦（David Finkelstein）和：19世纪爱尔兰的期刊出版社，伊丽莎白·蒂利（Elizabeth Tilley）
• 玛丽·麦卡特尼（生物）

记录整个世纪以来英国和爱尔兰新闻界的详尽历史似乎是一项艰巨的任务，但大卫·芬克尔斯坦（David Finkelstein）怀着崇高的敬业精神完成了这项工作。面对这样一个项目，人们可能会想知道什么是“新闻界”。英国和爱尔兰新闻的爱丁堡历史反对期刊和报纸应分开研究的观点。在该系列的社论介绍中，芬​​克尔斯坦声称“挑战过去控制“新闻”一词使用的人为鸿沟。。。和“定期出版物””（8个）。的确，本册采取了多方面的方法，策划了一系列章节，重点讨论了在主要大都市地区内以及重要的是在主要大都市区以外消费的英语，爱尔兰语，苏格兰语和威尔士语印刷媒体。它旨在引起人们对经常被忽视的空间的关注，例如区域和地方新闻媒体；威尔士语，爱尔兰语和苏格兰盖尔语出版社；和印度等国家的帝国话语。Finkelstein的开创性工作是该领域的首次研究，旨在通过这种宽广的视角共同研究英国和爱尔兰的新闻界。

尽管范围广泛，但该收藏还是巧妙地将其从一般语境转变为专门内容。大量内容分为六个部分，共计二十六个关键章节，并附有二十四个案例[结束页625]学习。该领域的四十八位专家对此案做出了贡献。前五个部分为了解媒体在市场上的运作方式奠定了基础，并提供了有关经济学，生产和发行，读者群，社区和法律结构的背景。第六和最长的部分涵盖了二十个主题章节，每个章节都突出了专门的新闻类型。在整本书中，插图有效地丰富了读者对相关文本的理解。例如，罗斯·罗伯托（Rose Roberto）的“图像工业的发展和维多利亚时代中期至晚期”使用视觉示例来帮助读者区分木刻和木刻，伊丽莎白·蒂利（Elizabeth Tilley）的“漫画，卡通和插图出版社”使用全彩色图像突出新闻界插图的重要性。

第一部分解释了政府税收和控制如何影响出版业的经济。霍华德·考克斯（Howard Cox）和西蒙·莫瓦特（Simon Mowatt）强化了芬克尔斯坦同时研究期刊和报纸的意图，例如，在19世纪下半叶，报纸出版在大城市以外地区蓬勃发展，而杂志出版仍局限于主要城市。第二部分介绍了打印技术和图像制作的发展。海伦·威廉姆斯（Helen S.Williams）提供了有关机械，排版，插图和原材料如何被迫发展以满足不断增长的文学市场需求的深入研究，该研究无缝地进入了罗伯特·罗伯托（Rose Roberto）关于图像创作的章节。罗伯托（Roberto）仔细地解释了从平版印刷术到电铸版术出版图像的不同方法，最终认为“知识是由易于复制的图像传播的”（124）。接下来的两个部分集中于消费和生产新闻的人：读者和出版商。保罗·拉斐尔·鲁尼（Paul Raphael Rooney）通过回顾消费印刷媒体的位置和方式来打开第三部分。他指出，研究读者群体“对新闻历史学家构成了挑战，”他认为仍有许多工作要做，并在本章结尾提出了对未来学术的建议（146）。第四部分着眼于出版行业的专业发展。正如乔安妮·沙托克（Joanne Shattock）所言，到本世纪末，新闻业已成为“作家的可行和受人尊敬的职业”（169）。第五部分探讨法律和出版领域是如何相互依存的。“一方面，法律为新闻事业蓬勃发展提供了框架；另一方面，媒体使工作正常化了。