In this volume, 12 North American and Brazilian scholars explore the evolution of the press during Brazil's imperial period (1822–89). Addressing both content and form, they interpret the press from multiple perspectives: as sources of political and commercial news, as businesses, as vehicles for socioeconomic mobility, as platforms for political and social agendas, as arbiters of taste, and as a rapidly changing genre that incorporated emerging literary and artistic features. The diverse contributors embed their essays within a broader Atlantic world framework and the latest interdisciplinary scholarship produced by Brazilian researchers.
The Brazilian press got a relatively late start due to crown prohibitions that remained in effect through 1808. Newspapers and pamphlets dealt primarily with political matters in the eras preceding and immediately following independence in 1822. The volume's contributors show that through the 1830s and 1840s, the press largely lived up to its reputation as a domain that was...
