Press and public in the French Revolution: a Parisian case-study from 1791

A very great deal has been written in recent years about the press in the French Revolution, and we are now well informed on the technology and work-organization of the major presses, the careers and manipulations of major publishers, the rhetorical strategies of leading propagandists, and the general array of press techniques which originated in the ancien regime and blossomed under revolutionary liberty.’ What remains less clear, however, is just how the press related to its immediate context at the time of production - what impact the turbulent politics of Paris had on the many publications that issued from the city, and how exactly those publications themselves influenced what was going on around them. Subtle and complex pictures have been painted of the evolution of attitudes and discourses within the press, but these have not translated well into efforts made to relate press discourse to events and attitudes visible in public life, particularly outside formal politics.