Print Culture and the Modern World

This chapter traces the history of print, from its beginnings in East Asia to its spread in Europe and India, and shows how it helped shape the modern world. It begins with the first printed books in China, Japan and Korea, then follows the coming of print to Europe — Chinese paper, Marco Polo, and above all Johann Gutenberg's printing press of the 1430s, which set off the print revolution. It examines the impact of print: the new reading public, the religious debates and the fear of print (Martin Luther and the Reformation, Menocchio and the Index of Prohibited Books), the reading mania of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the argument that print culture created the conditions for the French Revolution. It then turns to the nineteenth century's new readers — children, women and workers — and to India: the rich manuscript tradition, the coming of print, religious reform and public debate, new forms of publication, women and print, print and the poor, and finally print and censorship, including the Vernacular Press Act of 1878. It is a key chapter of the Class 10 History (India and the Contemporary World II) Board syllabus.