Print Culture and the Early Quakers

This book studies the early Quaker use of printed tracts, how they were produced and used.

Kate Peters (Author)

9780521093125, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 January 2009

292 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Peter's work offers a very considerable contribution to our understanding of the birth of the Quaker movement, as well as an important addition to the growing series of studies clarifying the role of the press in England's revolutionary tumults.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

The early Quaker movement was remarkable for its prolific use of the printing press. Carefully orchestrated by a handful of men and women who were the movement's leaders, printed tracts were an integral feature of the rapid spread of Quaker ideas in the 1650s. Drawing on very rich documentary evidence, this book examines how and why Quakers were able to make such effective use of print. As a crucial element in an extensive proselytising campaign, printed tracts enabled the emergence of the Quaker movement as a uniform, national phenomenon. The book explores the impressive organization underpinning Quaker pamphleteering and argues that the early movement should not be dismissed as a disillusioned spiritual remnant of the English Revolution, but was rather a purposeful campaign which sought, and achieved, effective dialogue with both the body politic and society at large.

Introduction
1. Writing and authority in the early Quaker movement
2. The production and readership of Quaker pamphlets
3. A national movement: pamphleteering in East Anglia
4. 'The Quakers Quaking': the printed identity of the movement
5. 'Women's speaking justified': women and pamphleteering
6. Pamphleteering and religious debate
7. Print and political participation
8. The James Nayler crisis, 1656
Bibliography of secondary sources.

Subject Areas: Political campaigning & advertising [JPVL], Quakers [Religious Society of Friends HRCC97], Religious intolerance, persecution & conflict [HRAM9], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]