ABSTRACT
Our journey requires us to enter into the world of London coffee houses, just a few years after the revolutionary events of 1688-9 placed a Dutchman and his wife on the throne of England. This was a time of commercial prosperity, growing international trade and exploration, and a widening curiosity among men and women about the world beyond their shores. The focus of this chapter is London, our starting point for considering the genesis of a mass media that transformed the communication of ideas and information, not only in England’s capital city, but across the British Isles and beyond. In this chapter, we will be considering the social context in which the Athenian Mercury appeared, the world of the coffee houses, and the broader cultural trends that shaped society at this time. A publishing history of the Athenian Mercury and its core readership among London’s coffee house clientele forms a necessary backdrop to an in-depth exploration of the periodical’s content in later parts of this book. The chapter concludes with an overview of the social issues which were provoking debate in the popular press of late-Stuart England, and why many of these debates centred around gender-related issues such as sexual behaviour and the making of marriage.
