The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe

In her enormous two-volume work The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, published in 1979, Elizabeth Eisenstein delivered the first full-scale examination of the fifteenth-century printing revolution in the West. After summarising the initial changes brought about by the establishment of printing shops, this abridged edition moves on to discuss how printing posed a challenge to traditional institutions and influenced three major cultural movements: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science. A later article is also included, with the goal of demonstrating that, despite the recent advent of new communications technology, the cumulative processes generated by printing are likely to remain.