The Press Gang

Overturns the generally held view that the press gang was the main means of recruiting seamen by the British navy in the late eighteenth century.

A dialogue about cinema's legacy and best directors through essays by three of the best long-form critics out there, collected from the legendary NYPress for the first time. Comprising of the kind of long-form criticism that is all too rare these days, the weekly film columns in the NYPress included polemics, reviews, interviews, festival reports and features. A far cry from what is often derisively termed the "consumer report" mode of criticism, Cheshire, Seitz and White were passionately engaged with the film culture of both their own time, and what had come before. They constituted three distinctly different voices: equally accomplished, yet notably individual, perspectives on cinema. Their distinctive tastes and approaches were often positioned in direct dialogue with each other, a constant critical conversation that frequently saw each writer directly challenging his colleagues. Dialogue is important in criticism, and here you can find a healthy example of it existing under one proverbial roof. This three-way dialogue between Cheshire, Seitz and White assesses the 1990s in cinema, along with pieces on New York's vibrant repertory scene that allow us to read the authors' takes on directors such as Hitchcock, Lean, Kubrick, Welles, Fassbinder and Bresson; as well as topics such as the legacy of Star Wars, film noir, early film projection in New York City, the New York Film Critics Circle, Sundance, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the emerging cinema of Iran and Taiwan.

Relations between the press and politicians in modern America have always been contentious. In The Press Gang, Mark Summers tells the story of the first skirmishes in this ongoing battle. Following the Civil War, independent newspapers began to sep

The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away to a harsh life at sea, sometimes for years at a time. Nicholas Rogers explains exactly how the press gang worked, whom it was aimed at and how successful it was in achieving its ends. He also shows the limits to its operations and the press gang's need for cooperation from local authorities, who were by no means prepared to support it. Written by an expert in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain, it is both well-researched and highly readable.

Who or what is Endymion Spring? A power for good, or for evil . . . A legendary book that holds the secret to a world of knowledge . . . A young boy without a voice – whose five-hundred-year-old story is about to explode in the twenty-first century . . . Set in present-day Oxford and Germany at the dawn of printing, one magical book sets two boys’ worlds alight – bringing them unimaginable danger, excitement and power . . . Skelton's brilliant literary debut. Powerfully gripping, a perfect, magical read for teenagers and adults alike.

Tracing the changing face of British newspapers, Roy Greenslade shows how the way we live has been shaped by what we read. While analysing such dominant media figures as Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell the book also examines the trends, the biases and the impact of the press as we know it today.

"Even as press-gangs roamed the London streets, eighteenth-century writers applauded, critiqued, and condemned the practice Pepys called "a great tyranny" - the means of naval recruitment by which Britain simultaneously manned her fleets and oppressed her citizens." "This book centers on literature produced in "moments of crisis" - times when Britain faced a military challenge and thus needed her Navy most. When the French gained the upper hand early in the Seven Years' War, David Garrick was moved to write "To honour we call you, not press you like slaves, / For who are so free as we sons of the waves?" This characterization of the press as benign was common in the theater, even as sailors brawled with press-gangs on London Bridge. At the same time, novelists bitterly attacked impressment policy, showing how the press weighs most heavily on the poor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Reproduction of the original.