Building a National Literature

Summary Points:

• During the beginning of the 19th century, America had no national literature. As the British described it, all of our literature was "imported". The American literature was deemed imported because it was too much modeled upon British and othe European literature. Soon after these acussations about a lack of an American literature were made, Americans began to place an emphasis on letters and to the construction of a national literature. 
• America's print culture emerged largely for newspapers and periodcals as well as the circulation of them. One of the biggest reasons for the growth of the newspaper was for political reasons. Some papers would have columns advertising the party platforms for certain parties or candidates. The newspapers also houses official documents.

Comment:

• I found it interesting that the advent of the penny press brought with it the field of journalism for the most part, as well as broadened the scope of journalism

Question

• It said that a periodical was available for "every genus of American". This is similiar to the argument that you can go on the internet and find information to back up any argument or claim you have. Would the variety of periodicals available in the 19th century compare with the internet today?