Abstract
Between the late 1600s and early 1700s coffee houses played a dominant role in the development of London’s social sphere. The offered a area for the general public to consume political news, as well as voice their opinions. On top of this coffeehouses became a part of people’s everyday routine because they guaranteed access to all free peoples, therefore providing a form of everyday political education. This narrative will be touching on how coffeehouses remained separate from government control, as well as, Robert Harley’s propaganda, and writers like Addison and Steele's work, The Spectator.
Key words: Public Opinion, propaganda, political news, Women.
Introduction
By the late 1600’s, coffeehouses began to spike in popularity, making them the place to be in terms of public discussion. Many people attended the coffeehouses because there they could be provided with newspapers. The access to newspapers helped to spark the public discussion and rational debate that become the most important part of the coffeehouse atmosphere.
Social Sphere in the Eyes of Jurgen Habermas
In the year 1980, Habermas wrote about the defining aspects of the social sphere. He explains how within a developing social sphere, the opinion of the general public can be voiced “realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed” (Habermas 198). London coffeehouses between the late 1600s and early 1700s are a prime example that reflect the aspects of social sphere expressed by Habermas.
Habermas writes that the government and or state affairs and activity within the public sphere are kept separated, this in theory should bring the people together, "although state authority is so to speak the executor of the political public sphere, it is not a part of it” (Habermas 198). The government still holds power within the public opinion, even though the public sphere is supposed to be separate.
Another aspect of social sphere defined by Habermas is the people’s ability to voice their own opinions, “public opinion can by definition only come into existence when a reasoning public can be presupposed” (Habermas 198). Men are given the ability to discuss different views about broad concept and had not been gifted with the ability to do so previously.
Universal access guaranteed to all, regardless of social class, gender, race, age, religious
belief, also condones a progressive social environment. Habermas writes “Access is guaranteed to all citizens” (Habermas 198). Universal access allows for anyone who is able to be at the coffeehouse to have a chance at public discussion.
Fostering rational debate is an important aspect of modernized life according to Habermas. Rational debate helps people to build from the knowledge of others. Participants in discussion are able to discover a standard of debate “discovery of general norms and rational legitimitations” (p. 198). Within coffee house discussion people are able to find a

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style of discussion that is most productive.
Coffee houses are also places where persons assembled and put aside their private interests. Rather than vouch purely for thier own needs and beliefs people can act as more of a unit of the public, “behave as public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion” (p. 198). The ability to put aside private interests allows for people to make progress in terms of defining the want and needs of the overall public.
Habermas also discusses how a public sphere is where public opinion can be created through civil interaction between people. Coffeehouses acted as a place for citizens to listen and process information in a more civil manner, “The public sphere as a sphere which meditates between society and state…” (p. 198). Because people must listen to all ideas within the discussion, it makes it easier for all people to have a say.
The final ideal is that transparent government is willing to provide information about affairs of state persons may gain information through media “Today newspapers and magazines, radio and television are the media of the public sphere”(p. 198) Coffeehouses were able to provide customers with newspapers, helping people to stay up to date with the affairs of the state. Although the news published by those working for the crown were not always transparent, the people who gathered at the coffeehouses were still able to for thier own opinions and interpretations around the affair of the state and public based upon the news they were given.
Story Map
Story Map
The Crown's Resentment of Coffeehouse life
King Charles II presents a great example of how the crown attempts to step into coffeehouse affairs. His dissatisfaction with coffeehouse gatherings is driven by his belief that the people will use the spaces to plot against his ultimate position of power. Markman Ellis discusses in his work The Coffeehouse: A Cultural History, how during the early decades of the

restoration “the coffeehouses were the subject of an intense literary scrutiny, seeking to understand and control, this innovative cultural space” (Ellis 58). By the time King Charles returned from exile in 1660, coffeehouses had already been firmly established in London. Although the king still holds the upper hand, the coffeehouse popularity ensures the maintenance of the atmosphere and purpose. The high demand for news consumption kept people flocking to coffeehouses because Newspapers were an exchange for the purchase of coffee.
Robert Harley's Propoganda

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Robert Harley, used propaganda to maintain an extreme position of power within the English government during the early 1700s. He was able to do so through newspapers because they were so popular, as stated by Robert Downie, “2,000 copies were dispatched” (Downie 2). People were so eager to read news papers because they allowed for all citizens to have some form of access of current politics.
Robert Harley had used his given political power to work his way to a strong social position. However, he needed to do more in order to maintain this. He controls public opinion through two things: propaganda and the Stamp act. Propaganda allows Robert to sway public opinion through the written work of others, while the stamp act was able to cut off the masses of the public from access to news.
Writers like Defoe Richard steel, Joseph Addison, and John Swift were all professionals paid by Harley to write news for the public that would represent his own values. This news was free and allowed for universal access. Writers like Swift had the responsibility of a Gentleman's writer and would write for more educated citizens “Clearly between propogandists of this kidney and they ordinary party scribbler there was a world of difference”(13). While writers like Defoe had the task of writing for the poor, less intellectual.
The Spectator
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele published articles through their newspaper, The Spectator, writing about news after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The published pieces also focus of social reformation and is meant to give the public a sense of morality (Addison and Steele 130).

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It is written that The Spectator’s guidance will be most useful to women, “But there are none to whom this paper will be more useful to than the female world”(131). The article explains how civilized women should act. However, the writer also manages to draw them in by being complementary of women, saying he knows there are those with much more elevated lifestyles.
Blanks of society and even those who are deemed exemplary citizens are considered candidates for The Spectators guidance, “I would recommend this paper to the daily perusal of those gentlemen whom I cannot but consider as my good brothers and allies”(129) The authors write in a way that can is bring fourth modern philosophy for the people, a sort of modern Socrates.
Women and Coffeehouses

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Women had immediately been excluded from the original coffeehouse life. Although nothing in writing existed outlawing them from participation, it had been established that proper women would not want to be seen at a coffeehouse.
It is known that women were only present in coffeehouses as servers and or prostitutes when Ellis writes about their exclusion from the social debate “Among the most potent was that which excluded women” (66). At this point in history white males were still the only people seen as worthy of Liberty and Property.
Eventually women gathered to stand against coffeehouses because they believed that their husbands were far too distracted from their real duties as men by the coffeehouse social life. According to Ellis, many women believed that men who participated in everyday coffeehouse social circles began to develop more feminine social qualities.
Time Line
Concluding Analysis
Coffeehouses were initially responsible for the lasting development of social standards and social development among the common people. They gave voice to people who otherwise would not have been allowed and opinion on political matters. Not only did they give the public a place to converse, they encouraged and made it popular to be interested in news. On top of this, growing sophistication of coffeehouse social sphere is part of what made them such strong centers of social and political growth
Coffeehouse culture still maintained flaws despite their progressive image. Charles II and Robert Harley are largely responsible for the penetration on coffeehouse affairs. Ultimately however, they kept their place in society as a gathering spot for the public and continued to provide them with a voice, largely due to their established popularity with the general public.
About the Writer
Natalie is a part of Saint Lawrence's class of 2023 in Canton, New York. She hopes to be an Art major and also takes interest in the Geology department at Saint Lawrence. She is also races on the Saint Lawrence NCAA nordic ski team during the winter season.
Natalie is enrolled in the first year seminar London Coffeehouse: Culture and Modernity. This class focuses on improving college writing skill through the topic social sphere and the analysis of London coffeehouse life.
Natalie's home is in Bennington, Vermont. There she enjoys skiing, running, painting and drawing with free time. This coming summer she had originally planned on visiting London with her family, however, is now driving to Durango, Colorado because of worldwide traveling restrictions. She loves travel and hopes to reschedule the trip soon because of the new knowledge she has gained from her first year seminar.
Sources
Habermas, Jürgen. “The Public Sphere.” Communication and Class Struggle, edited by Armand Mattelart and Seth Sieglaub, International General, 1980, pp. 198-201.
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, vol. 1. New York: Appleton & Co., 1853.
Downie, J. A. The Oxford Handbook of the Eighteenth-Century Novel. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ellis, Markman. Eighteenth-Century Coffee-House Culture. Pickering & Chatto, 2006
William Penn, The Excellent Privilege of Liberty & Property (Philadelphia: William Bradford, 1687).
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, www.pepysdiary.com/diary/.