New publication: W.T.Stead: Newspaper Revolutionary
Roger Luckhurst, Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature, and Laurel Brake, Professor Emerita of Literature, are co-editors of a new book on the Victorian journalist and editor William Stead.
Roger Luckhurst, Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature, and Laurel Brake, Professor Emerita of Literature, are co-editors of a new book on the Victorian journalist and editor William Stead.
The book W.T.Stead: Newspaper Revolutionary, published by The British Library, aims to recover William Stead’s extraordinary influence on modern English culture and to mark a major moment in the history of journalism.
When William T Stead died on the Titanic in 1912, he was the most famous Englishman on board. He was one of the inventors of the modern tabloid newspaper. His advocacy of ‘government by journalism’ helped launch military campaigns. His exposé of child prostitution in the ‘Modern Babylon’ of London raised the age of consent in 1885, yet his investigation got him thrown into jail. A campaigner for women’s rights, he was unnerved by the rise of the New Woman. An advocate of World Peace, he promoted huge hikes in defence spending. A political radical and Christian, Stead was also a Spiritualist who took dictation from the dead. A mass of contradictions, he was a crucial figure in the history of the British press. This book of essays, marking the centenary of his death, seeks to recover the story of an extraordinary figure in late Victorian and Edwardian culture.
Professor Luckhurst teaches on the BA English and MA Modern and Contemporary Literature.