An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108838382)

Across the early modern Atlantic world, there were commodities just as valuable as sugar, tobacco or cotton: news and information. However, crossing an ocean beset by wars, pirates and bad weather made transoceanic communications irregular at best, posing significant challenges to the weekly European news cycle. With infrequent access to information, publishers had to navigate between speculation and confirmation, printing everything they could without losing credibility or customers. Michiel van Groesen explores this 'culture of anticipation' across the Atlantic world in Spain, Portugal, France, the Low Countries and England and also in the urban information centres of Renaissance Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. He argues that news from the Atlantic world underpinned all transatlantic exchanges, giving newspapers their rightful place in Atlantic history, and the Atlantic world its place in the history of news.

Author: Michiel Van Groesen
ISBN-10: 1108838383
ISBN-13: 9781108838382
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/18/2026
Pages: 294
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.36lbs
Size: 9.07h x 6.33w x 0.70d