Lords of Fleet Street: The Harmsworth Dynasty

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Routledge, Jul 24, 2015 - Social Science - 292 pages

Originally published in 1990. The Harmsworth family, starting with Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922) is the greatest and most influential press dynasty Britain has known. The dynasty has had by far the greatest impact on the shape of the press today of all the great press families. The Harmsworths were big, bold characters, enormously rich and with a gift for flamboyant use of their wealth. Much more important though is the way they used their influence on public opinion to steer the country’s political and social life. ‘Public opinion’ was a force that the Harmsworths harnessed before anyone else, and they quickly understood how to use it as a political tool. This book is constructed as four biographies which together make up the central story of the popular press in Britain. Their story continues to have relevance.

 

Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements
The Harmsworth Family
The Founder
Origins and Answers
From Magazines to The Times
From 1914 to 1922
Family Personality Impact
The Brother
From 1898 to 1937
13
From 1937 to the 1950s
13
From Coronation Year to 1978
13
Family Impact Personality
31
Vere Rothermere The Grandson
33
From Birth to 1971
33
From 1971 to 1981
33
Towards the 1990s
33

The Founder of the Sunday Pictorial
From 1922 to 1929
13
From 1929 to 1940
13
Dynasty and Impact
13
The
13
Epilogue
33
Notes
33
Select Bibliography
27
Index
29

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Bourne, Richard

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