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Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys

by Vincent DiGirolamo (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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From Benjamin Franklin to Ragged Dick to Jack Kelly, hero of the Disney musical Newsies, newsboys have long intrigued Americans as symbols of struggle and achievement. But what do we really know about the children who hawked and delivered newspapers in American cities and towns? Who were they? What was their life like? And how important was their work to the development of a free press, the survival of poor families, and the shaping of their own attitudes, values and beliefs?

Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys offers an epic retelling of the American experience from the perspective of its most unshushable creation. It is the first book to place newsboys at the center of American history, analyzing their inseparable role as economic actors and cultural symbols in the creation of print capitalism, popular democracy, and national character. DiGirolamo's sweeping narrative traces the shifting fortunes of these "little merchants" over a century of war and peace, prosperity and depression, exploitation and reform, chronicling their exploits in every region of the country, as well as on the railroads that linked them. While the book focuses mainly on boys in the trade, it also examines the experience of girls and grown-ups, the elderly and disabled, blacks and whites, immigrants and natives.

Based on a wealth of primary sources, Crying the News uncovers the existence of scores of newsboy strikes and protests. The book reveals the central role of newsboys in the development of corporate welfare schemes, scientific management practices, and employee liability laws. It argues that the newspaper industry exerted a formative yet overlooked influence on working-class youth that is essential to our understanding of American childhood, labor, journalism, and capitalism.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0197533337
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0197533338
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    May 13, 2022
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    9.3 x 2 x 6.3 inches
  7. Print length
    720 pages
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Crying the News is a remarkable work of scholarship and should be accepted and celebrated as such." -- David Nasaw, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (retired), Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

"In Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys, Vincent DiGirolamo gives newsboys the historical weight they are due. ... Future scholars of child labor and print journalism will benefit from DiGirolamo's historical unearthing of their lived experiences, deftly contextualized within the broad arc of American history." -- Cristina Groeger, The Metropole

"To say the book is a comprehensive, definitive account of the subject would be a grotesque understatement. DiGirolamo has spent more than two decades researching this subject, and the results are breathtaking. The author resurrects countless historical characters, telling their stories with ingenuity and grace. At the same time, he provides a comprehensive history of American newspaper publishing and supplies one of the best contributions to the history of youth yet to appear.... At first glance, a history of news hawkers might seem like a limited subject, but Crying the News is social history at its best. For anyone looking for a comprehensive social history of the (really) long nineteenth century, this book would be an excellent place to start." -- James Schmidt, New England Quarterly

"Monumental....The book situates newsboys in the march of history from the country's economic takeoff, to the rupture between labor and capital, to government interventions into laboring children's welfare.... DiGirolamo's...attention to both the positive and negative sides of newsboys' lived experiences...and their varying complicity with and resistance to capitalism, makes for a well-balanced book that refuses to romanticize its subjects." -- Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, Journalism History

"In their time, newsboys (girls were rare) were American icons―symbols of unflagging industry and tattered, barefoot, shivering objects of pity. They had their own argot and better news judgment than many editors, because they had to size up the appeal of every edition to determine how many copies to buy from the publisher .These waifs, urchins, street Arabs, ragamuffins, gamins, juvenile delinquents and guttersnipes, as they were called, now have their Boswell in Vincent DiGirolamo .His Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys is an encyclopedic account of these heralds of the golden age of newspapers in America. They were essential contributors to the newspaper economy and ink-smudged secondhand witnesses to history Crying the News is really a social history of the American press from the 19th century to World War II."―Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal

"Rescuing 'newsies' from the condescension of history with inventive curiosity and stunningly wide research, Vincent DiGirolamo has restored these crucial child laborers―boys and girls, white and black―to their central place in American cities. His revelations about hawking the news offer an ingenious guide to understanding the changing relations between labor and capital and between print media and society in the United States."―Nancy F. Cott, Harvard University

"Richly researched, incisively analytic, and compellingly written, Crying the News cuts through the nostalgic myths that envelop the newsboy and lets us enter into their lives, with their distinctive banter, camaraderie, argot, dress, rituals, and ethics. A vivid window into the nation's first urban youth culture and the evolution of news media, this book offers a stunning example of a history that treats the young as active agents who were far more capable and competent than contemporary society assumes."―Steven Mintz, University of Texas at Austin

"Crying the News offers a century of American history through the lens of one of our most iconic characters―the newsboy. DiGirolamo focuses on the intimate relationship between news criers and capitalism. Newsboys' voices animate the narrative and deepen our understanding not only of their lives, but also of their communities and their nation."―James Marten, Marquette University

"Traditionally a stock figure in American history and culture, the newsboy finally sheds his (and her) picaresque, picturesque, and marginal status in Vincent DiGirolamo's comprehensive and revelatory study. At once a social, cultural, labor, reform, journalism, and capitalist history, Crying the News is an amazing feat of research and writing that, with extraordinary scope and meticulous detail, captures the diverse experience of the 'newsies' as it reveals how we cannot fully understand a hundred years of US life without reckoning with these children and young adults."―Joshua Brown, City University of New York Graduate Center

"[This book] reveals the ubiquity of newsboys whose names were rarely recorded, finding their traces in literature, as well as posters, art, and photographs, many of which are reproduced in thirty-three beautiful color plates. DiGirolamo's historically contextualized close readings of these visual artifacts bring newsboys to zestful life for the reader. His book emphasizes that the newsboy's role was not limited to selling and distributing newspapers but expansive enough to reshape the newspaper business, social reform movements, children-related government policies, and even literary representations of children." -- Jewon Woo, American Periodicals

"A tour de force of social history...DiGirolamo demonstrates that the newsboy was more than a transitional form of labor, or a rite of passage from child to adult employment. Newsboys were a significant part of the American workforce, as well as familiar figures in American culture." -- Timothy Gilfoyle, Journal of Urban History

"Magisterial...With remarkable detail and breathtaking scope, Crying the News is a stunning achievement that will be of interest not only to historians of labor, capitalism, print journalism, and childhood but also to anyone interested in the American experience...Its singular achievement as a work of social history stands out. Crying the News resurrects the thoughts and actions of newsboys themselves." -- Betsy Wood, Journal of American History

About the Author

Vincent DiGirolamo is Associate Professor of History at Baruch College of the City University of New York and an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (May 13, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 720 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0197533337
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0197533338
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 2 x 6.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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Vincent DiGirolamo

Vincent DiGirolamo

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Vincent DiGirolamo is an associate professor of History at Baruch College of the City University of New York, where he specializes in 19th- and 20th-century America, with a focus on workers, children, immigrants, city life, and print culture. He is the author of "Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys," winner of the Turner, Taft, Mott, Palmegiano, and DeSantis prizes in history. DiGirolamo covered the waterfront as a labor reporter in San Francisco and co-produced the award-winning PBS documentary "Monterey's Boat People." He earned his BA from UC Berkeley, MA from UC Santa Cruz, and PhD from Princeton University. He is also the author of the young adult novel "Whispers Under the Wharf." More information can be found on his website: vincentdigirolamo. com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David Connell
5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you wanted to know and much more.
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about news-boys and much more. Shows how they started, worked together and formed unions. How they lived and how they built housing for them. Showed how important they were to the success of the newspaper business and how they could make or break a newspaper by refusing to distribute their product. This author, Vincent DiGirolamo did a fantastic job. Very through and very well done. The book is about 550 pages but he kept if very interesting and has very good paintings/pictures to go with the book.

If you ever wanted to know about his subject, this is the book to buy.
2 people found this helpful
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First Steps Publishing
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2022
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Saved me countless hours of research for my novel. Includes photos, color and black & white, to visualize the "characters." A wealth of information.
One person found this helpful
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Fred F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2022
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Lengthy, but enjoyable and educational.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice read
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
I’m a history buff and this book was will written, I couldn’t put it down
One person found this helpful
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Robin
5.0 out of 5 stars Small fries with the violence of the measles
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2019
It was a different America. While immigrants and stowaways flooded the Eastern ports filled with expectation, many did not fare well. There was no medical care available to them, and even fewer social programs to support families and children. Children were often burdened with the care of disabled or sickly parents, and younger siblings. Orphans were forced to fend for themselves. By 1873, there were few child labor laws, and compulsory education was close to non-existent. Only four states required school attendance. Only six had set a minimum age for factory work, “generally between ten and fourteen.” So, when printing became more sophisticated, and news media emerged as big business, it was a mixed blessing. Newsboys and girls had the opportunity to eek out a paltry living. And moguls, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, got rich on the backs of these noisy “Little Immortals.”

Who were these “costermongers”, “hawkers”, “pestiferous gamins”, of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

They were, to name a few, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Harry Houdini, Herbert Hoover, W.C. Fields, Walt Disney, Jackie Robinson, Walter Winchell, Thomas Wolfe, Jack London, Harry Truman, John Wayne, and Warren Buffett. They were “Swipes the Newsboy,” orphaned at seven, living in an alley way. They were “Handy”, “Log Leg”, and “Didley Dumps”, disabled youngsters who shouted, struggled, and scraped with the law in order to hawk their goods. Had it not been for the author’s exceptional research and profuse detailing of their personal lives, I would have sworn these feisty characters came straight out of a Dickens novel.

And I kept asking myself: How did their role in American history escape serious examination?

The writing style in “Crying the News” is clear as a crisp Chicago morning, lively as “Huckleberry Finn,” and compelling as “White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America.” The author’s attention to detail is unrivaled. Historical photos, color plates, and illustrations are annotated, and of the highest quality. Both Subject and Name indexes make research easy. The narration never glosses over the outworn myths of the newsboy’s success, or the self-flattering notions “of national character” that “continue to skew our understanding of these children.” This masterpiece by Vincent DiGirolamo is a must-read for students of history, and all of us who hunger for the truth. 5 Stars.
6 people found this helpful
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Wilbur Sachs
5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2023
Verified Purchase
Dogged, well-documented research into a difficult-to-cover topic about a disappearing but important part of the American past.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

haprg
5.0 out of 5 stars It has provided a huge amount of information
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2024
Verified Purchase
It has provided a huge amount of information
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