Solid History Rhymes With Present Themes. This is a solid history showing the rise of “organic” newspapers of the 19th century in particular, from their earliest days in the 18th century and earlier to their corporatization as the 20th century began.
You’re going to learn a lot here, from the pre-teen girl going “viral” *well* before that was a thing for creating her own newspaper in an era when few adult men could accomplish the feat to Mark Twain’s ultimate downfall, and Wright does it all in a very approachable style.
And yes, there is quite a bit of rhyming history going on here with the “wild and wooly” early newspapers and the similar late 2000s/ early 2010s heyday of the blogosphere, before both ultimately became corporatized and heavily regulated.
Clocking in at 19% bibliography, this is also a pretty solidly documented history, which is always a great thing to see, particularly when so much is covered that so many are likely unfamiliar with.
Overall truly a well written history packed full of knowledge and insights from a period and topic of history that most likely few indeed will have very little knowledge of before coming into this book, and thus one that will prove quite illuminating indeed as the parallels of this period and our own are quite obvious.
Very much recommended.
This review of Empire Of Ink by Alex Wright was originally written on June 17, 2026.