Mass literacy increased many fold in the nineteenth century, in Europe. Women children and workers started reading books. Discuss.
Primary education was compulsory in the late nineteenth century. Children became an important category of readers. The printing industry now had its hands full by printing school books. A Children's press was set up in France in 1857 which catered solely to books for children. This press published new stories as well as old fairy tales and folk tales.
The Grimm Brothers in Germany compiled traditional folk tales gathered from peasants and the book was published in a collection in 1812. Rural folk tales now had a new form.
Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were published exclusively for women. They contained articles on proper behaviour and housekeeping. Novels became popular as women started reading them.
Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot were well known authors. Their writings became important in defining a new type of woman, who had will –power, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.
Lending libraries became popular in the seventeenth century as the literacy rate increased and many took to reading. Books became instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people.
Books themselves in a way increased literacy. Working class people wrote for themselves and used books for self education.
After the working day was gradually shortened from the mid-nineteenth century, workers had time for self-improvement and self-expression. They wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.
How did Gutenberg personalise the printed hooks suiting to the tastes and requirement of others ? [CBSE 2012]
Who said "Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one ? ] [CBSE 2010. 11, 12]
Give reasons for the following:
a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.
c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books from the mid-sixteenth century.
d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association.
The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.’ Explain.
How did the oral culture enter print and how was the printed material transmitted orally ? Explain with suitable examples. [CBSE 2008 (F), Sept. 2012]
Or
How did the printers manage to attract the people, largely illiterate, towards, printed books ? [CBSE Sept. 2012]
How were ideas and information written before the age of print in India ? How did the printing technique begin in India ? Explain. [CBSE 2008, Sept. 2010]
Or
Explain the role of missionaries in the growth of press in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Name an Act which was passed by the British government to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers.
What restrictions were imposed by the Vernacular Press Act on the Indian Press ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
Or
In what ways the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was a repressive step by the Government ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
Mention some of the innovations which have improved the printing technology after the 17th century. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
Highlight any three innovations which have improved the printing technology from 19th century onwards. [CBSE 2014]
Not everyone welcomed the printed books, and those who did also had fears about it.' Explain by giving examples.
Who was the major producer of printed material in China ? For what purpose this material was used ?
’Liberty of speech … liberty of the press … freedom of association. The government of India is now seeking to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing and cultivating public opinion, the fight for swaraj, for Khilafat … means a fight for this threatened freedom before all else….’
Who said these words ?
Study the given paragraph and answer the following questions that follow :
Liberty of speech…. liberty of the press freedom of association. The government of India is now seeking to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing and cultivating public opinion. The fight for Swaraj, for Khilafat …. means a fight for this threatened freedom before all else ….'
(i) Who said these words ?
(ii) Name the freedoms he is talking about.
Why were the printed books popular even among illiterate people ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2012]
How did printing press create a new- reading public ? Explain. [CBSF. Sept. 2013]
Or
"There was a virtual reading mania in European countries in the 18th century". Explain the factors responsible for this virtual reading mania.
Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers.' Explain. [CBSE 2014]
Or
How did ideas about science, reason and rationality find their way into popular literature in the 18th century Europe ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]