The Newberry Library Bulletin, May 1952 By Richard D. Altick The
men of nineteenth-century England often spoke of themselves as
living in an “age of periodicals.” Whether or not this was a
phrase of self-congratulation depended on the speaker and on the
time. It might signify one’s satisfaction at the broad diffusion
of knowledge that the spectacular increase of periodical
literature represented, or it might express the despair of the
fastidious at that other signal accomplishment of periodicals,
the debasement and vulgarization of contemporary culture.
Whatever the tone of voice in which the phrase was uttered,
there can be no doubt that in retrospect it sums up the most
important tendencies of the era. Periodicals were, indeed, the
nineteenth century’s most characteristic products; they
constitute a comprehensive symbol of the age. They were called
forth by the very circumstances which determined the cultural
climate of the time: the neo-Puritan emphasis upon reading for
moral and religious, as well as inte