seanmortons
Academic Historian, Teacher
Position
Researcher, Graduate Student
History
Member for:
5 years 20 weeks
Personal Information
First Name:
Sean
Last Name:
Morton
Institution/Organization:
Brock University
Province/State:
Ontario
Interests:
Canadian Colonial History, British Imperial History, Print Culture, Digital Humanities
The print cultures of colonial Atlantic British North America, Georgian Britain, and the early American nation were intricately interwoven, but the implications of their connections and disjuncture have seldom been examined. From the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 to the conclusion of the American Revolution in 1783, how the British Empire was conceived and increasingly integrated underwent a profound transformation. With the Act of Union (1707), capture of French Acadia (1710), the signing of the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Paris (1763), as well as continued colonial settlement throughout the Atlantic the necessity to unify the British Empire became imperative. During this period newspapers were spreading throughout the English countryside and Imperial holdings carrying with them British ideas and culture in the reproduction of common articles, advertisements, and legal notices. By reconsidering the politics of publishers throughout the colonial Atlantic world, and the relation they had with their transatlantic counterparts,I propose to study the relationship between print and politics on one hand, and knowledge and power on the other, by reconsidering the politics of publishers throughout the colonial Atlantic world, and the relation they had with their transatlantic counterparts between 1688 and 1783. I will ask whether or not regional presses and publications were a means through which imperial ideas were reproduced and disseminated rather than simply being a means of local cultural development.
My MA research, “An Empire in Print: Imperial Print Culture in Halifax Nova Scotia, 1752-1776” explores the ties and influences between the eighteenth-century British imperial political economy as well as the publications and editorial policies of Halifax’s first printing press. My doctoral research will undertake a comparative study of the connection between the imperial Atlantic economy, and British political influence on provincial and colonial culture in three settlements, first comparing Halifax and Boston first, and then extending the comparison to the English town of Bristol. Using newspaper content and evidence of the editorial policy in each town, I will evaluate the impact of the press through an examination of publications such as The Bristol Post Boy (1702), Boston News Letter (1704), and The Halifax Gazette (1752). My study assesses how the political affiliations of publishers in the Atlantic world influenced political and social relationships, class and gender relations, literature and culture, as well as the regional sense of identity. Contrasting regions from the perspective of their print culture during this period also provides an opportunity to re-evaluate their histories. The working theory of my doctoral research will be that eighteenth-century provincial and colonial newspapers were used, both directly and indirectly, by the British government to connect imperial interests and influence regional cultural development and identity construction throughout the British Atlantic world. I anticipate that this research will fundamentally change how early modern North American history, culture, political sensibilities, and society are conceptualized.
The press and print cultures of these three cities provide the sources and suggest a methodology. The early newspapers of these settlements demonstrate the attempt to deal with the politically charged topics of the time, including their differing responses to British hegemony and discourse with respect to regional conflicts, debates regarding tensions within the empire, and later matters of revolution, gender and class roles, slavery, and national identity. It is in the trans-national comparisons of these cities and their Atlantic counterparts throughout this period that representations and influences of their shared experiences can be located, explored, and better understood.
In theoretical terms my research is interested in how the transatlantic relationships among regional print cultures interacted and influenced one another in the early modern and colonial periods. In this regard, the scholarship of Atlanticists such as Bernard Bailyn, Elizabeth Manke, and David Armitage will be central to my research. Further developing Bailyn’s theories, my research reasserts that Atlantic studies is a significant field of inquiry which expands our understanding of regional development and interrogates nationalist assertions neglected by the traditional historiography of North America. Despite the excellent work of scholars such as David Armitage, Kathleen Wilson, Elizabeth Mancke, Jack Green, Philip Morgan, and J. H. Elliott, research into the Atlantic world is still full of possibilities for important research and as a field of inquiry it is ideal for expansion. (Olson 2003) In particular, the role of newspapers and the movement of ideas and culture have yet to be fully developed and present a remarkable opportunity for new interpretations. The scholarly value of this particular facet of Atlantic history is supported by the scholarship of Ian Steele (1986), Michael Braddick (2002), and Kathleen Wilson (2004) whose collective publications note, but do not develop, the important role of print communication in the political, social, and cultural integration of the English Atlantic world. Therefore, the ideological and social interactions of that network influenced the cultural composition, identity construction, and popular attitudes of the period. (Wilson 2004)
This research is of primary importance given the recent publications of Patricia Fleming, David Hall, and Hugh Amory which have brought print culture to the forefront of scholarship. However, little research has focused upon the transatlantic dynamic among colonial cultural centres or comparative considerations of politics throughout the Atlantic. Instead, Atlantic world history is usually seen through economic, political, military, social, and demographic perspectives, while historians have largely failed to consider how print culture and newspapers were integral and influential to that world. (Wilson 2004) In this regard, print culture Atlanticism brings together traditionally divergent historiographies by combining elements of early modern European and North American history with the history of the book and by examining the common, comparative, interactive, and influential aspects of texts and ideas throughout the eighteenth century provincial and colonial British Atlantic. Considered in this manner, my research will take both a cis-Atlantic (study of national or regional history within an Atlantic context) as well as a trans-Atlantic (comparison of national or regional developments within an Atlantic context) approach. This framework will allow me to examine the relationships between regional print cultures and how they interacted and influenced one another, embracing the concept that "the history of the Atlantic as a particular zone of exchange and interchange, circulation and transmission" which needs to be deepened. (Armitage 2002) In particular, my research seeks to re-examine the eighteenth century British Atlantic by connecting imperial interests to the content and influence of trans-national news publications upon the culture of the period. In this way, my proposed research will bring together not only several distinct historiographies, namely Atlantic history and print culture, but also the related contributions of bibliographical and literary research. (Howsam 2006)
Category:
Academic Historian, Teacher
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