W. T. Stead: Newspaper Revolutionary

About this book

Among the hundreds who died when the Titanic sank in the north Atlantic Ocean on April 15 1912 one of the most famous was William Thomas Stead an English journalist and editor. An early pioneer of investigative journalism and one of the inventors of the modern tabloid newspaper Stead was one of the most controversial figures of the Victorian era. His advocacy of government by journalism helped launch military and parliamentary campaigns and his expos of child prostitution in the Modern Babylon of London raised the age of consent to sixteen. But Stead was also a mass of contradictions: a campaigner for womens rights he was unnerved by the rise of the New Woman; an advocate of world peace he promoted huge hikes in defense spending; a political radical and Christian he was also a spiritualist who took dictation from the dead. This collection of essays published to mark the centenary of Steads death recovers the story of an extraordinary figure whose impact on modern culture and journalism can still be seen today.