SECOND HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Elisabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution
in Early Modern Europe

 

Due electronically by 5 PM, September 24. Send to <21H.418-students>:

 

1) Ong, as we saw last week, argues that the great break in the history of "technologizing the word" occurred with the invention of writing. How would Eisenstein rebut this claim?

2) According to Eisenstein, what features of print culture explain its "revolutionary" impact?

3) While appreciative of Eisenstein's work, Anthony Grafton also has mportant reservations about her thesis. Discuss one or two of these reservations, and state why you do, or do not, agree with him.