Paula McDowell Knihy

Exploring the active role of women in print culture and public politics, this book uncovers the significant contributions of middle- and lower-class women in shaping political discourse. It challenges the notion that women were mere passive recipients of political ideas, highlighting their diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and religio-political affiliations. By revealing their involvement in the production and dissemination of political thought, the book asserts that women were integral to public life, contradicting contemporary claims of their exclusion.

Oral tradition in the history of mediation -- Oral tradition as a tale of a tub: Jonathan Swift's oratorial machines -- The contagion of the oral in a Journal of the plague year -- Oratory transactions: John "Orator" Henley and his critics -- How to speak well in public: the elocution movement begins in earnest -- "Fair rhetoric" and the fishwives of Billingsgate -- "The art of printing was fatal": the idea of oral tradition in ballad discourse -- Conjecturing oral societies: global to Gaelic -- Coda: when did "orality" become a "culture"?