American Underworld: The Flash Press

The American Underworld: Flash Press Collection available from Readex is a treasure trove of early American metropolitan journalism, providing a rare glimpse into unique, short-lived, and often bawdy newspaper titles which found their glory days between the 1830s and 1850s. Akin to the tabloid presses of today, these publications often presented the seamier aspects of everyday urban society, often preaching against the very topics on which they reported. In the more than sixty papers available through the American Antiquarian Society, this collection represents some of the rarest of all American newspapers and contains unique research material for those in urban studies, women’s studies, criminal justice, Victorian society, and the literature of the nineteenth century. The latest Readex interface provides a variety of user options to view, search, and explore this array of visual ephemera and includes new and enhanced user features for scholarly research. The value of this exclusive historical newspaper content combined with the attractive initial pricing on this collection outweigh the minimal improvements necessary to improve searchability and discovery.