Abstract
Unlike traditional components of national power such as economic resources and military strength, the mass media are a recent development in political history. Johann Gutenberg invented the letter press in the latter part of the fifteenth century, but there was no true “mass media” until the American and French Revolutions of the eighteenth century. The American press contributed significantly to the success of the American Revolution by honoring inalienable rights like life, liberty, and property while the French press quickened the demise of the French Revolution by promoting utopian notions like the perfectability of man, total democracy, and collectivism.
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Notes
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© 2008 Paul Hollander
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Edwards, L. (2008). The Mass Media in the Service of Soviet Communism and in Post-Communist Russia. In: Hollander, P. (eds) Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616240_7
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