Scottish Press: News Transmission and Networks Between Scotland and America in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

Although there is a long-established and rich historiography exploring the intellectual links between Scotland and America in the eighteenth century, little attention has been directed toward Scottish newspapers in this historiography. Were Scottish newspapers present in eighteenth-century American news reporting? If so, which ones, when, and to what effect? This chapter adds to our understanding of eighteenth-century news transmission and networks between Scotland and America by providing preliminary answers to these questions. The chapter shows that American readers had access to Scottish newspaper accounts of foreign affairs, many of which impacted their world and they could follow at a distance Scottish events such as the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The chapter also contains a case study on how broadsides helped create images of the Scottish diaspora.