This book investigates how early eighteenth-century authors navigated the anxieties surrounding the rapid expansion of print culture and the resulting phenomenon of information overload. Katherine E. Ellison, an expert in eighteenth-century literature and media history, examines how writers of the period conceptualized the dangers and possibilities of an increasingly saturated information environment. By analyzing canonical texts, she argues that these authors developed specific rhetorical strategies to manage, filter, and interpret the deluge of news and print material that defined their era.

Scholars in the field of eighteenth-century studies recognize this work as a significant contribution to the history of media and reading practices. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's ability to bridge historical literary analysis with modern information theory.