- Lesson 14: The First Printed Books (East Asia)
- Core Concepts: The origin of print in China, Japan, and Korea; hand-printing and woodblock printing technology; the rise of an urban print culture in China and Edo (Tokyo) driven by merchants, scholars, and fiction readers.
- Lesson 15: Print Comes to Europe
- Core Concepts: The flow of print technology from Asia to Europe via trade routes; the transition from expensive handwritten manuscripts to mechanical print; Johann Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press (the Gutenberg Bible).
- Lesson 16: The Print Revolution and Its Impact
- Core Concepts: How print transformed daily life; the creation of a new reading public; the shift from an oral culture to a reading culture; religious debates and the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses).
- Lesson 17: The Reading Mania and the 19th Century
- Core Concepts: The spread of literacy across Europe; new forms of popular literature (chapbooks, almanacs, penny magazines); children’s literature and women as prominent readers/writers; innovations like Richard M. h*e’s power-driven cylindrical press.
- Lesson 18: Print Culture and the French Revolution
- Core Concepts: The connection between print and historical change; how print popularized the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers (Voltaire, Rousseau); the creation of a critical public sphere that questioned despotism and institutional authority.
- Lesson 19: India and the World of Print
- Core Concepts: India’s rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts (Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, vernacular) and their limitations; the arrival of the printing press (Goa by Jesuit priests); early newspapers like James Augustus Hickey’s Bengal Gazette.
- Lesson 20: Religious Reforms and Public Debates in India
- Core Concepts: Print as a vehicle for socio-religious debates; the tussle between reformers and orthodox groups (e.g., Rammohun Roy’s Sambad Kaumudi); the rise of Islamic print culture (Deoband Seminary fatwas) and Hindu religious texts (printed editions of the Ramcharitmanas).
- Lesson 21: New Forms of Publication & The Politics of Literacy
- Core Concepts: The evolution of Indian literature (novels, short stories, political essays); visual culture in print (woodcuts, caricatures, and cartoons); women’s perspectives on society (Kailashbashini Debi, Tarabai Shinde, and Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban).
- Lesson 22: Print, Censorship, and the State
- Core Concepts: Print and the working class (cheap libraries, caste critiques by Jyotirao Phule and B.R. Ambedkar); the colonial government’s response to nationalist print; the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 and its impact on freedom of expression; Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Kesari.
