McGill-Queen's University Press Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America: Volume 65

Printing presses were instrumental in creating and upholding a sense of community during the eighteenth century. While the importance of print in the development of colonial America and the nascent United States is well-established, Imprinting Britain extends the historical discussion northward to explore the dynamic and interrelated world of newspapers, coffee houses, and theatre in the British imperial capitals of Halifax and Quebec City. Michael Eamon describes how an English-language colonial community coalesced around the printed word, establishing public spaces for colonists to propose, debate, and define their visions of an ideal society. Whereas American newspapers functioned as incubators of republican and revolutionary thought, their British North American counterparts featured a moderate discourse that rejected republicanism, favoured civic engagement, advocated liberty with propriety, extolled democracy under monarchy, promoted reason over superstition, and encouraged social criticism without revolution. The press also safeguarded against the uncertainties of colonial life by providing a steady stream of transatlantic news, literature, and fashion that helped construct a sense of Britishness in an environment rife with mixed loyalties. Imprinting Britain is the story of communities that turned to the press for a canon of British norms, literary touchstones, and Enlightenment-inspired ideas, which offered a blueprint for colonial growth and a sense of stability in an ever-changing, transatlantic milieu. Review “A marvelous contribution to the cultural history of Canada, full of fascinating information and thoughtful reflection.” Elsbeth Heaman, McGill University “Historians of newspapers, printing, and theatre, as well as literary scholars and all those interested in eighteenth-century Canada, the British Atlantic, and British imperial history will find this work definitive in its specifics and suggestive in a variety of related contexts.” Ian K. Steele, Western University “Imprinting Britain is a meticulous study of every extant English-language newspaper printed in eighteenth-century Quebec City and Halifax. But it is not only a study of texts or readers in isolation: this is a book about print as sociability, as well as print and sociability. As the detailed appendices demonstrate, those papers prove to be one of the few windows into colonial associative life, and readers are indebted to Eamon for cataloguing mentions of societies, coffeehouses, and plays performed in Halifax and Quebec City.” Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society From the Author Michael Eamon is adjunct professor of history at Trent University and principal of Catharine Parr Traill College. About the Author Michael Eamon is adjunct professor of history at Trent University and principal of Catharine Parr Traill College.