political blogs as political pamphlets

I'm re-reading The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Bernard Bailyn, 1967). Bailyn's first chapter is devoted to consideration of his primary sources: political pamphlets published from 1750 to 1780.

He notes that...

It was in this form -- as pamphlets -- that much of the most important and characteristics writing of the American Revolution appeared. For the Revolutionary generation, as for its predecessors back to the early sixteenth century, the pamphlet had peculiar virtues as a medium of communication. Then, as now, it was seen that the pamphlet allowed one to do things that were not possible in any other form.

This characterization suggests that today's political pamphlets take the form of political blogs, like Private Buffoon and much better-known ones.

Seems I'm not the only blogger to have noticed this, or to cite Bailyn.
Pamphleteers and Web Sites, on Dan Bricklin's Website pretty much captures everything I'd set out to say in this post!

In particular, he includes the same passage from Orwell (quoted by Bailyn) I'd intended as my centerpiece:

The pamphlet [George Orwell, a modern pamphleteer, has written] is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and "high-brow" than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of periodicals...

It's fun to realize that political blogs, like Private Buffoon (and those mentioned in right-hand sidebar!), can trace their ancestry to America's Revolutionary period! - a decent pedigree!!!