"An Inky Business is a history of ink, paper, printing press and type. It is the story of those who made and read newspapers in Britain, continental Europe and America from the English Civil Wars to the Battle of Gettysburg over two hundred years later. It is an account of what news was and how the idea of news became central to public life, as well as how newspapers ranged from purveyors of high seriousness to carriers of scurrilous gossip."