The Tempe Spy is a reference to Isaiah Thomas' "The Worcester Spy," a newspaper began in 1770. Isaiah Thomas originally called the paper "The Massachusetts Spy," but he fled Boston during The Revolution and settled in Worcester. Thomas remains famous for publishing the first recognized American novel, "The Power of Sympathy" and he founded the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, which houses one of the nation's largest collection of early American printed documents. Thomas' printing press remains on display at that AAS.
The Tempe Spy consists of the writing of students at Arizona State University. The goal of The Spy is the digitally model Jürgen Habermas' "Principle of Supervision" and Michael Warner's "Principle of Negativity" as they manifested in the printed materials of the public sphere in early America.
