The Press Gang

“The Press Gang is by far the best book yet produced on the 19th-century press and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the politics of this period.” — Virginia Quarterly Review

“In this tantalizing and complex study, the author has skillfully interwoven milestones in the evolution of journalism as a profession and portraits of celebrated members of the press gang with grand and small crises in our national life. Mark Summers’s work commands that we never think of nineteenth-century newspaper sources in quite the same way again.” — Journal of Southern History

“This extremely readable account of the role of the press as American democracy was redefined in the wake of the Civil War strengthens the belief that history does not repeat itself.” — Illinois Historical Journal

“The Press Gang is a fresh narrative of party strife of the Gilded Age. . . . Persuasive and wonderfully readable.” — Reviews in American History

“Exceptionally well written. The narrative is fast-paced and absorbing.” — Journal of American History

“Insightful and full of interesting characters and entertaining anecdotes. [The book] makes an important contribution to our knowledge of nineteenth-century American History.” — Michael Les Benedict, Ohio State University

“An impressively researched and illuminating study of political journalism in the Gilded Age, The Press Gang analyzes an era when the press had not yet freed itself from past political party entanglements nor embraced 'objectivity' as its professional goal. Summers colorfully sketches the careers of leading nineteenth-century journalists to reveal how they gathered the news — and why they slanted it.” — Donald A. Ritchie, Historical Office, U.S. Senate