Profs & Pints DC: Democracy Born in Darkness

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Democracy Born in Darkness,” on the shady, partisan, violent origins of American political media, with Jon Grinspan, award-winning curator of political history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

As Americans try to navigate a shifting media landscape at a time when objective journalism seems under assault, it’s worth looking back to the formative years of American political media for lessons from the past.

Come to Profs and Pints at DC’s Penn Social to learn about the political press of the 19th century, a time when expanding literary rates and democratic engagement went hand in hand with an aggressive, tribal media landscape. The political press fed a nation of news junkies a steady stream of rumors, accusations, personal insults, open threats, and frequent mis- and dis-information. Very often, newspapers also became targets of political violence, with editors assassinated and presses tossed into rivers by…