States of Inquiry: Social Investigations and Print Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the United States (review)

In a time of information overload it may come as a surprise to learn that not much has changed in the last two hundred years in terms of government information. The nineteenth century was a harbinger of things to come, a period in which thousands upon thousands of pages were churned out in the United States and Great Britain in a spirit of democratic access to information. When citizens could obtain access to this information, they often had just as much trouble as we do today in digesting and creating meaning from documents that are overwhelming in their attention to detail.

This is just one of the fascinating impressions that emerge from States of Inquiry, an examination of government printing and print culture in nineteenth-century America and Great Britain. Oz Frankel, an assistant professor of historical studies at the New School for Social Research in New York City, explores what he terms "print statism"—the state's role in conducting and reporting social investigations and how these activities reshaped the ways governments represented themselves and their citizens. Engaging and at times frustrating because of its style and format, this well-researched book employs case studies to illustrate the central thesis, resulting in a study of how some of our key historical documents came to be as well as illuminating new methods of information exchange between government and constituents. Readers looking for a solid grounding in nineteenth-century government printing will be disappointed by the selective treatment—in some cases, the complete absence—of certain key aspects, but States of Inquiry is a worthwhile contribution to the history of the book and government publishing in particular.

Prior to the nineteenth century, according to Frankel, social investigations were conducted by nongovernmental groups and individuals such as clergymen, physicians, social reformers, magistrates, and charity organizations. The nineteenth century ushered in an era in which social research would be consolidated by the central government. The American and British governments had come to perceive that a citizen audience was in need of both information and representation, and they then set out to serve both wants through "unprecedented scientific, literary, and aesthetic documentation of the country, its social circumstances, economy, and history as well as its natural environment" (1).

After a lengthy and substantive introduction Frankel opens his argument with the British poor-law investigation (1832–34), which began what we now think of as the government spin process: the attempt to shape public perception by flooding the market with information. This period also inaugurated a new economics of government information, with private companies benefiting from widespread reproduction of copyright-free government reports. In Frankel's telling, the public accessed government information through various public and private means, including newspapers, congressional sources, and commercial booksellers.

Aside from a passing mention, States of Inquiry does not devote any attention to the U.S. Government Printing Office and its role in creating, standardizing, circulating, and preserving government information. Congress passed a resolution in 1813 to distribute government documents to universities, colleges, and historical societies in each state, a system that was the precursor to the Federal Depository Library Program. The use of libraries and other public institutions to provide free and widespread access to government information could have been an interesting piece of Frankel's argument about the economics of information and communicating with citizens in a democracy. This is an unfortunate oversight.

Starting the story thirty years into the century also exemplifies one of the challenges of this book. The structure accommodates Frankel's argument, but chapters and examples move forward and back in time, creating an impressionistic sense of the era rather than a timeline that charts the arc of evolution. A short chapter providing historical context from the centuries before and after this period would have been helpful.

States of Inquiry's greatest strength is its...