How did politicians deal with mass communication in a rapidly changing society? And how did the performance of public politics both help and hinder democratization? In this innovative study, Betto van Waarden explores the emergence of a new type of politician within a system of transnational media politics between 1890 and the onset of the First World War. These politicians situated media management at the centre of their work, as print culture rapidly expanded to form the fabric of modern life for a growing urban public. Transnational media politics transcended and transformed national politics, as news consumers across borders sought symbolic leaders to make sense of international conflicts. Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire historicizes contemporary debates on media and politics. While transnational media politics partly disappeared with the World Wars and decolonization, these 'publicity politicians' set standards that have defined media politics ever since.

‘This is an intelligent and timely comparative study. It demonstrates how publicise or perish became the mantra of statesmen in the age of the mass media, with success directly correlated to an ability to exploit the proliferating network of local, national and transnational communication systems.‘

Chandrika Kaul - University of St Andrews

‘The densely argued analysis focuses on media portrayals and political maneuvering surrounding three disputes between Britain and Germany, and draws on digital newspaper archives, correspondence between politicians and journalists, and a close (often critical) reading of the existing literature. Recommended.’

J. Bekken Source: Choice

‘Betto van Waarden’s ‘Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire’ … takes the mediatization of politics across Europe, North America, and parts of the settler-colonial world around 1900 as its point of departure and focuses on the convertibility of mass-mediated attention into political authority. He reconstructs this conversion as both a promise and a risk for media-savvy politicians.’

Christina Sigrid Schlaich Source: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte