The specter of the archive : political practice and the information state in early modern Britain /Nicholas Popper.

"As original paperwork and copies alike flooded the government, information management became the core of politics. Focusing on two of early modern England's primary political archives, the Tower of London Record Office and the State Paper Office, Popper traces the circulation of their materials through the government and the broader public sphere. In this early media-saturated society, we find the origins of many issues we face today: Who shapes the archive? Can we trust the pictures of the past and the present that it shows us? And, in a more politically urgent vein: Does a huge volume of information (not all of it accurate) risk contributing to polarization and extremism?"--