W. T. Stead

Among the hundreds who died when the Titanic sank in the north Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, one of the most famous was William Thomas Stead, an English journalist and editor. An early pioneer of investigative journalism and one of the inventors of the modern tabloid newspaper, Stead was one of the most controversial figures of the Victorian era. His advocacy of “government by journalism” helped launch military and parliamentary campaigns, and his exposé of child prostitution in the “Modern Babylon” of London raised the age of consent to sixteen. But Stead was also a mass of contradictions: a campaigner for women’s rights, he was unnerved by the rise of the New Woman; an advocate of world peace, he promoted huge hikes in defense spending; a political radical and Christian, he was also a spiritualist who took dictation from the dead. This collection of essays, published to mark the centenary of Stead’s death, recovers the story of an extraordinary figure whose impact on modern culture and journalism can still be seen today.