The Politics and Meaning of Thomason’s Tracts
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eBLJ_2023_article7_Raymond_J_VoR_BY.pdf
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445.69 KB
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Raymond, Joad
Date published
January 29, 2024
Abstract
This article takes as its starting point the reputation of Thomason's collection as royalist in orientation. It examines whether Thomason’s collection reflects 1640s and 1650s press output more broadly - offering a quantitative account of this - and whether the items he chose to purchase, and those he did not, reveal anything about his own political persuasions. As such, it reflects not just upon the scale and completeness of the Thomason tracts, but also upon the thinking involved in its development and preservation, and in exploring the complex political identities of both the collection and its collector it highlights the need to scrutinse very carefully the rhetoric that was used by Thomason and others.
Journal title
Electronic British Library Journal
Volume
2023
Article number
7
Publisher
British Library
Place of publication
London, UK
eISSN
1478-0259
Date accepted
March 3, 2023
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Rights statement
In Copyright
Keywords
Additional information
Author note: Joad Raymond is a Welsh writer, now based in London and Folkestone. Formerly he was a professor of Renaissance Studies, and taught at the Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, East Anglia, and Queen Mary University of London. During those years he wrote and edited numerous books on news, book history, and Milton, and the article that appears here. In post-academic life he records music under the name The Unattached, and has three forthcoming books: The News in Europe and Utopia: A Traveller’s Guide, both with Penguin, and a novel, All The Colours You Cannot Name, with Seren Books.
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