In this history of radical publishing at the turn of the century, Elliott Shore focuses on the "Appeal to Reason," the flagship newspaper of J. A. Wayland's publishing empire. As modern periodical publishing came of age with the appearance of the first mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, so too did both populism and socialism in the United States. They drew strength from the same factors-the advance of technology, spreading industrialization, the growth and concentration of urban populations, and rising literacy rates. In the "Appeal to Reason" the two powerful and important forces journalism and radicalism came together.