Book Reviews : Freedom of the Press in England, 1476-1776: The Rise and Decline of Government Control. By FREDRICK SEATON SIEBERT. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965. Pp. xiv, 394. Paper, $2.25.)

• Date: 01 March 1966
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900157
• Published date: 01 March 1966
• Author: E. Malcolm Hause
• Subject Matter: Articles

201

pression

decade.

Historians

should

awaken

to

the

rich

opportunities

that

await

them

in

the

investigation

of

the

growth

of

Big

Government

and

its

implications

for

twen-

tieth-century

society.

I

was

reminded

of

this

critical

need

when

reading

the

Minutes

of

the

thirty-

one

meetings

of

the

National

Emergency

Council

which

FDR

established

in

1933

for

the

purpose

of

coordinating

the

complicated

federal

bureaucracy.

The

editors

have

provided

both

a

general

introduction

and

separate

introductions

to

each

of

the

meet-

ings.

Still,

the

reader

may

encounter

certain

difficulties

in

placing

the

discussions

into

some

meaningful

and

proper

socio-economic

context.

Without

this

context,

and

an

adequate

frame

of

reference,

the

Minutes

at

times

seem

to

rise

from

a

vacuum.

For

the

reader

and

student

who

has

some

extensive

knowledge

of

the

early

New

Deal

and

can

exercise

his

powers

of

imagination,

this

volume

is

both

informative

and

illuminating.

It

reveals

a

great

deal

about

the

decision-making

apparatus;

how

Roosevelt

dealt

with

his

ranking

advisers;

the

concern

of

the

New

Deal

Brain

Trust

with

the

strategy

of

social

planning.

These

Minutes

allow

us

to

perceive

Roosevelt’s

concern

for

getting

the

initiative

for

various

reform

programs

to

emerge

from

the

local

citizenry

at

the

grass

roots.

We

sense

how

federal

investigators

roamed

the

countryside

gathering

information

which

was

conveyed

back

to

the

Squire

in

the

White

House.

We

learn

how

the

New

Deal

encountered

occasional

difficulties

in

recruiting

competent

personnel

for

specific

assignments.

In

all,

this

is

an

important

reference

work

which

deserves

an

audience

wherever

there

is

serious

consideration

of

the

New

Deal

Era.

The

University

of

Oregon

Press

should

be

congratulated

for

its

willingness

to

publish

such

an

important

and

attractive

source

book.

I

hope

that

this

work

will

serve

to

stimulate

a

widespread

interest

in

the

problems

of

modern

American

administrative

machinery.

LAWRENCE

E.

GELFAND

University

of

Iowa

Freedom

of

the

Press

in

England,

1476-1776:

The

Rise

and

Decline

of

Government

Control.

By

FREDRICK

SEATON

SIEBERT.

(Urbana:

University

of

Illinois

Press,

1965.

Pp. xiv, 394.

Paper,

$2.25.)

The

story

of

the

freedom

of

the

press

in

the

United

States

since

1776

is

merely

the

epilogue

of

this

vital

right;

the

body

of

it

was

written

in

the

three

centuries

of

English

history

preceding

our

act

of

Independence.

From

the

rise

of

the

middle-

class

democracy

in

the

Tudor

period

to

the

late

eighteenth-century

parliamentary

predominance,

regulation

of

the

press

moved

from

that of

absolute

control

by

the

state

to

the

ideal

of

absolute

individual

freedom.

The

press

has

been

involved

in

both

the

cause

and

the

effect

of

this

growth

of

freedom.

The

original

edition

of

this

exceptionally

valuable

and

well-documented

inves-

tigation

was

first

published

as

a

hardback

in

1952.

At

that

time

Siebert

received

numerous

favorable

reviews

of

his

trail-blazing

study.

It

is

unfortunate,

however,

that

before

printing

this

paperback

edition,

more

recent

studies

of

merit

might

not

have been

incorporated

in

some

modest

revisions

of

the

original.

For

example,

Joseph

Frank,

The

Beginning

of

the

English

Newspaper, 1620-1660

( Gambridge :

Harvard