Everything about Elizabeth Eisenstein totally explained
Elizabeth Lewisohn Eisenstein is an American historian of the
French Revolution and early 19th century France. She is well-known for her work on the history of early
printing, writing on the transition in media between the era of
'manuscript culture' and that of
'print culture', as well as the role of the
printing press in effecting broad cultural change in
Western civilization.
Career
Eisenstein was educated at
Vassar College where she received her B.A., then went on to
Radcliffe College for her M.A. and Ph. D. It was there she studied under
Crane Brinton. She taught at
American University from 1959 to 1974, then the
University of Michigan, where she was the
Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History. In 1979 she was resident consultant for the
Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.
She has held positions as a fellow at the Humanities Research Center of the
Australian National University and at the
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto). Eisenstein was visiting professor at
Wolfson College, Oxford, and published her lectures from that period as
Grub Street Abroad. She is currently professor emerita at University of Michigan.
The Printing Press as an Agent of Change
Eisenstein's best-known work is
The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, a two-volume, 750-page exploration of the effects of
movable type printing on the literate elite of post-Gutenberg Western Europe. In this work she focuses on the printing press's functions of dissemination, standardization, and preservation and the way these functions aided the progess of the
Protestant Reformation, the
Renaissance, and the
Scientific Revolution. Eisenstein's work brought historical method, rigor, and clarity to earlier ideas of
Marshall McLuhan and others, about the general social effects of such media transitions.
This work provoked debate in the academic community from the moment it was published and is still inspiring conversation and new research today. Her work also influenced later thinking about the subsequent development of
digital media. Her work on the transition from manuscript to print influenced thought about new transitions of print text to digital formats, including
multimedia and new ideas about the definition of text.
Awards
She has received various awards and recognitions, including fellowships from the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, and the
Rockefeller Foundation. In 2002, she received the
American Historical Association's Award for Scholarly Distinction, and in 2004 the University of Michigan awarded her the honorary degree of
Doctor of Humane Letters.
In 1993, the National Coalition of Independent Scholars created the
Eisenstein Prize, which is awarded biannually to members of the organization who have produced work with an independent focus.
Selected Bibliography
(The author is Elizabeth L. Eisenstein unless indicated otherwise.)
- Includes a new afterword by the author.
Series : Lyell lectures 1990-1991.
Series : The Sixth Hanes lecture.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Elizabeth Eisenstein'.
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