Taking Print from Print Culture & Leaving the Public Sphere Behind

May 23, 2014 By Al Zuercher Reichardt in Historiography, Opinion Tags: cultural history, Jürgen Habermas, Methodology, newspapers, Print Culture, Public Sphere 13 Comments

Or how to make a causal argument about print, media, and communication in the eighteenth century

This post began as a brief response to Tom’s recent piece on the public sphere and to the conversation it generated in the comments section. As it turns out, brevity is not my strong suit, and I’ve got a few bones to pick. So all cards on the table: I’m more than a little invested in the importance of communication; I have a hard time watching print be stripped of its mechanistic or causal role; and I don’t believe we can possibly ever argue that changes in media didn’t cause social and political change.[1] Continue reading →

The Public Sphere and Early American Democracy

May 12, 2014 By Tom Cutterham in Historiography, Works Reconsidered Tags: bourgeoisie, Democracy, Jürgen Habermas, political economy, Politics, property, Public Sphere 11 Comments

Das Lesekabinett (1843), Johann Peter Hasenclever How did the particular formation of democratic politics, a rambunctious public sphere, and capitalist social relations come about in the early American republic? I began to talk about this question last month when I asked, ‘how did democracy become a good thing?‘ I argued that the crucial factor was an unprecedented separation between economic and political power, which made democractic politics incapable of seriously interfering with capital accumulation. Today I want to show how Jürgen Habermas’ account of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere helps us see what went on in this crucial separation, and how his account relates to the American case in particular. Continue reading →