ABSTRACT
The newspaper became one of the primary mediums of education, mobilization, and political participation during the 17th and 18th centuries. Newspapers played a central role in publicizing the causes of various religious and political groups, which fractured the electorate into warring ideological camps. Both liberals and conservatives saw public schooling as the best way to equate the masses and justify the ideas and practices of the ruling elite. By the 19th century, traditional literacy was gradually replaced by the new norms of democracy and nationalism. The expansion of full citizenship and the opening of public schools to all children were met with resistance by conservatives, resulting in cultural wars.
