Fleet Street Press Barons And Politics

Fleet Street, Press Barons and Politics provides a personal account of the tribulations of working as a journalist and editor during the 1930s. Collin Brooks recorded for posterity his observations of the journalistic, political, literary and financial sets in which he circulated. The journals open with Brooks working at the Financial News. His move to the Sunday Dispatch, his rise to the editorial chair, and his intimate friendship with Lord Rothermere ensure that these journals offer a unique insight into the operations and mentality of a press baron. Further, the diaries offer a perspective upon dissident right-wing Conservatism during the leaderships of Baldwin and Chamberlain, giving new insights into the debates over India, rearmament and foreign policy as well as the continued flirtations with Mosley and fascism. These readable, witty and fluent journals, skilfully edited by N. J. Crowson, offer a fascinating snapshot of Britain in the 1930s.

Presents the history of the press in London, from its earliest days through to the relaunch of "The Guardian". This book talks about political opinion, commercial opportunism, technological advances, price wars, satisfying the thirst for news, the influence of editors, great feature writers, gossip columnists, advertising campaigns, and more.This authoritative history of the press in London, from its earliest days through to the relaunch of "The Guardian" this year, tells a fascinating story. There were 'newsbooks' during the turbulent Civil War period, and rigorously state-controlled newspapers (such as the "London Gazette") launched afterwards, but the newspaper industry as we know it today really began to flourish in the 1690s, when released from censorship. New papers have been launched every year since then, and just a few have adapted and survived. 'Give the readers what they want' soon became the watchword used. And that is what this book aims to do, too. Political opinion, commercial opportunism, technological advances, price wars, satisfying the thirst for news (with newshounds who sniff out the day's stories), the influence of editors, great feature writers, gossip columnists, advertising campaigns, the invention of the cartoon strip and crosswords, the power of the Press Barons, and then the breaking of the power of the unions - all contribute to the story that Griffiths weaves so expertly.

This volume represents extensive research on Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe), one of the press lords who influenced British politics and policy during World War I. It deals with Northcliffe and the inseparable quality of his public and political career from his journalism.

Born to a middle-class Viennese family and of partly Jewish descent, after marriage to (and divorce from) a German prince Stephanie von Hohenlohe became a close confidante of Hitler, Göring, Himmler (who declared her an 'honorary Aryan') and von Ribbentrop. After arriving in London in 1932, she moved in the most exclusive circles, arranging the visits of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Lord Halifax to Germany in 1937. Most notoriously, she was paid a retainer of £5,000 per year by Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, who was an open supporter of the Nazi regime. In 1939 she fled to the USA; a memo to President Roosevelt described her as a spy 'more dangerous than ten thousand men.' In this new biography, Jim Wilson uses recently declassified MI5 files and FBI memos to examine what motivated both Stephanie and Rothermere, shedding light on the murky goings-on behind the scenes in Britain, Germany and the USA before and during the Second World War.

This collection shows the importance of a comparative European framework for understanding developments in the popular press and journalism between the wars. This was, it argues, a formative and vital period in the making of the modern press. A great deal of fine scholarship on the development of modern forms of journalism and newspapers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has emerged within discrete national histories. Yet in bringing together essays on Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, this book discerns points of convergence and divergence, and the importance of the European context in shaping how news was defined, produced and consumed. Challenging the tendency of histories of the press to foreground processes of ‘Americanisation’ and the displacement of older notions of the ‘fourth estate’ by new forms of human interest journalism, the chapters draw attention to the complex ways in which the popular press continued to be politicized throughout the interwar period. Building on this analysis, the book examines the forms, processes and networks through which newspapers were produced for public consumption. In a period of massive social, political and economic upheaval and conflict, the popular press provided a forum in which Europe’s meanings and nature could be constructed and contested. The interpersonal, material and technological links between newspapers, news corporations and news agencies in different countries served to define the outlines of Europe. Europe was called into being through the circulation of news and the practices and networks of the modern mass press traced in this volume. This publication is highly relevant to scholars of the history of journalism and cultural historians of interwar Britain and Europe. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

The two centuries after 1800 witnessed a series of sweeping changes in the way in which Britain was governed, the duties of the state, and its role in the wider world. Powerful processes - from the development of democracy, the changing nature of the social contract, war, and economic dislocation - have challenged, and at times threatened to overwhelm, both governors and governed. Such shifts have also presented challenges to the historians who have researched and written about Britain's past politics. This Handbook shows the ways in which political historians have responded to these challenges, providing a snapshot of a field which has long been at the forefront of conceptual and methodological innovation within historical studies. It comprises thirty-three thematic essays by leading and emerging scholars in the field. Collectively, these essays assess and rethink the nature of modern British political history itself and suggest avenues and questions for future research. The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History thus provides a unique resource for those who wish to understand Britain's political past and a thought-provoking 'long view' for those interested in current political challenges.

Arthur Kenneth (A.K.) Chesterton was a soldier, journalist and activist whose involvement with fascist and extreme right-wing politics in Britain spanned four decades. Beginning with his recruitment to Oswald Mosley’s ‘Blackshirts’ in the 1930s, Chesterton’s ideological relationship with fascism, nationalism and anti-Semitism would persist far beyond the collapse of the interwar movements, culminating in his role as a founder of the National Front in 1967. This study examines Chesterton’s significance as a bridging figure between two eras of extreme right activity in Britain, and considers the ideological and organizational continuity that existed across the interwar and post-war periods. It further uses Chesterton's life as a means to explore the persistence of racism and anti-Semitism within British society, as well as examining the political conflicts and tactical disputes that shaped the extreme right as it attempted to move ‘from the margins to the mainstream’. This book will appeal to students and researchers with an interest in fascism studies, British political history, extremism and anti-Semitism.

Britannia's Zealots, Volume I opens the first longitudinal study to examine the Conservative Right from the late-19th century to the present day. British Conservatism has always contained a significant section fundamentally opposed to progressive reform. A permanent minority in Parliament, dissident right-wing Conservatives nevertheless had allies in the press and sympathy among grassroots party members enabling them to create crises in the media and at party meetings. N.C. Fleming charts the evolution of reactionary politics from its preoccupation with the Protestant constitution to its fixation with the prestige and strength of Britain's global empire. He examines the overlooked ways in which Conservative Right parliamentarians shaped their party's policies and propaganda, in and out of office, and their relationships with the press and ordinary activists. He seeks to demonstrate that this influence could be circumscribing, and on occasion highly disruptive, with consequences which remain relevant for today's Conservative party. Britannia's Zealots, Volume I will be of great interest to academics and students of British history, right-wing politics, imperialism, and 20th-century history.

Journalists often claim that they write the first draft of history, but few historians examine the press in detail when preparing later drafts. This book demonstrates the value of popular newspapers as a historical source by using them to explore the attitudes and identites of inter-war Britain, and in particular the reshaping of femininity and masculinity. It provides a fresh insight into a period of great significance in the making of twentieth century gender identities, when women and men were coming to terms with the upheavals of the Great War, the arrival of democracy, and rapid social change. The book also deepens our understanding of the development of the modern media by showing how newspaper editors, in the fierce competition for readers, developed a template for the popular press that is still influential today.