SOURCE: Mott, Frank Luther. “General Periodicals in the Era of Expansion.” In A History of American Magazines: 1741-1850, pp. 339-74. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930.

In the following excerpt, Mott surveys developments in the American periodical from 1825 to mid-century, with special focus on women's magazines and literary weeklies.

Political and Social Conditions in 1825

The years immediately following 1825 were epochal in practically all fields of endeavor in most of Europe and America. From the accession of Charles X to the French throne in 1824 events ran on rapidly to the revolution of 1830; Belgium achieved her independence in this latter year; Spanish liberalism submitted to defeat when confronted by a French army in 1823, but was again active a few years later; the young Mazzini, graduated from law school in 1826, was having his first experiences with the Carbonari and was soon to forge the thunderbolt of Young Italy; in spite of Metternich and...