The Reading Mania | 17th and 18th centuries 

• •Increase in literacy rate

• •Schools set up by Churches of different denominations

• •Virtual reading mania

• •New forms of popular literature – Penny chapbooks, Biliotheque Blue, Almanacs or ritual calendars

• •Periodical Press – Newspapers, Magazines

• •Ideas of Scientists and Philosophers spread easily

Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world 

• •Louise Sebastien Mercier(France), a novelist in the 18th century gave the statement.

• •He declared that the Printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion and it is the force that will sweep despotism away.

• •Books were means of spreading progress and enlightenment

• •Power of print

• •Destruction of despotism and tyranny

• •In many of his novels , the heroes were shown getting transformed by the act of reading.

Print Culture and the French Revolution 

• •Popularised the ideas of the enlightenment thinkers(Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu etc)

• •A new culture of dialogue and debate

• •Mocking the Royalty

• •Monarchical and church propaganda exposed

• •Opened up possibility of thinking differently