The Printing Press as an Agent of Change

Abstract

Originally published in two volumes in 1980, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change is now issued in a paperback edition containing both volumes. The work is a full-scale historical treatment of the advent of printing and its importance as an agent of change. Professor Eisenstein begins by examining the general implications of the shift from script to print, and goes on to examine its part in three of the major movements of early modern times - the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science.

Digital Exclusion: Implications for Human Services Practitioners

“…This favored those with hearing impairment and excluded access for those with vision impairment. Eisenstein (1980) has described the Gutenberg printing press as a powerful change agent, making possible not only mass production of the Bible, the key text of the time, but also the distribution of dominant ideology and the means of spreading political subversion and social change. The decentralization of knowledge, and freer circulation of information, had immense political and religious significance in western society, leading indirectly to movements such as the Renaissance and Reformation (Eisenstein, 1980).…”

The author as agent of information policy: The relationship between economic and moral rights in copyright

“…It must be noted that the two revolutions were inextricably connected and that the printing press was as much an artefact of industrialization in its revolutionary impact on text as any other invention of the industrial revolution was in its economic sector (Randall, 2001, p.65). 16 The radical effects of the printing press on European society have certainly been noted (Eisenstein, 1979) --but its impacts on two different elements of communication have not been as well understood in subsequent analysis: the elites controlling the flows of information and the channels through which audiences were best reached.…”

The Prospects for Cyberocracy (Revisited)

“…67 65 Levien, 1991, p. 210. 66 The classic studies are Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, 1968, and the resulting book, Eisenstein, 1979. On the expansion of empires, see Innis, 1950. 67 Bell, 1979a, p. 36. The effects depend on the context.…”