Louise McReynolds
The News under Russia's Old Regime: The Development of a
Mass-Circulation Press.
Princeton University Press, 1991. 0691031800 xii/313 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.75", is bound in
blue cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book is in
fine condition, with solid binding, clean and bright
interior. Dust jacket exhibits light shelfwear. 
"In this lively account of the rise of a commercial newspaper
industry in imperial Russia, Louise McReynolds explores how
the mass-circulation press created a forum for popular
opinion advocating political change. From the Great Reforms
of Tsar Alexander II in 1855 to the Bolsheviks' shut-down of
the newspapers in 1917, she chronicles the exploits of
publishers and editors, writers and readers. Arguing that
this prosperous industry both expressed and shaped the
development of ideas among new social groups, McReynolds
provides insight into the growth in Russia of a fragile
pluralism characteristic of modern societies. Her discussion
of the relationship between communications and politics,
which draws especially on Jurgen Habermas, combines a variety
of interrelated ingredients: institutional histories of major
newspapers, biographical sketches of journalists, the
intellectual impact of the new language of newspaper
journalism, the political ramifications of public opinion
under the auspices of an autocratic government. Comparing the
Russian press with independent commercial newspaper
industries in the United States, England, and France,
McReynolds examines the extent to which Russia was evolving
according to Western political and socioeconomic patterns
before the Bolshevik Revolution."