Elizabeth Eisenstein

Elizabeth Eisenstein (1979)

Elizabeth Ann Lewisohn Eisenstein (born October 11, 1923 in New York City , † January 31, 2016 in Washington, DC ) was an American historian with a focus on the French Revolution and early 19th century France. She is best known for her research on the history of early book printing and media change from the era of manuscript culture to printing culture, as well as the role of book printing in addressing widespread cultural change in Western civilization.

Life and career

Eisenstein was born the third daughter of Sam A. Lewisohn, son of Adolph Lewisohn and Margaret Seligman, granddaughter of Joseph Seligman and Babet Steinhardt.

She completed her training at Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts , then went to Radcliffe College in Cambridge (Massachusetts) , where she did her Master of Arts under Crane Brinton and finally her Doctor of Philosophy . In the early 1950s, she couldn't find a college job, not even part-time. In 1957, after earning her PhD , she moved with her husband Julian Calvert Eisenstein to Washington, DC , where she applied to lecturer at several colleges, including Georgetown University , George Washington University , Howard University, and the University of Maryland . Eventually she found a part-time position at American University .

From 1959 to 1974 she taught as an assistant professor at the American University and then served as the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michigan . She was an advisor to the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in 1979 .

Eisenstein received membership of the Humanities Research Center at the Australian National University and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto . She was a visiting professor at Wolfson College , Oxford and published her studies in her book, Grub Street Abroad . She was an emerita professor at the University of Michigan and an honorary member of St Cross College , Oxford.

Her last work was the book Divine Art, Infernal Machine. The Reception of Printing in the West from First Impressions to the Sense of an Ending , published in 2011.

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 research paper on the effects of book printing with movable type on the educated stands of the Post- Gutenberg era in Western Europe. In this work she concentrates on the function, distribution, standardization and maintenance of the printing press, the support provided by the printing press during the Reformation and the scientific revolution and its importance in the Renaissance .

In her work, she developed historical methods and overviews of earlier ideas by Marshall McLuhan - whom she criticizes for his "oracular style" - and others on the general social effects of media change. It has been controversial in the academic community since it was published and is still used today for inspiring discussion and cutting edge research. Her portrayal of the change in the era of manuscript culture to print culture influenced the thought of the change in print culture to digital formats, including multimedia and new thoughts on the definition of text.

Eisenstein's work was sharply criticized in science. Paul Needham , librarian at Princeton University Scheide Library , described the book as almost incomprehensible, and it should also have more general flaws in the historical methodology: imprecise chronology, lack of historical context, exclusive research in secondary sources, which are not always accurately documented and of particular Relevance.

Unacknowledged revolution

Eisenstein's book The printing press as an agent of change echoes her thoughts on the Unacknowledged Revolution , as it called the revolution that occurred after the invention of printing. Print media allowed the general public to gain access to books and knowledge that were not previously available to them - this led to the growth of public knowledge and individual thought. The ability to formulate and capture your own thoughts became a reality through the pressure. Eisenstein recognized this era as very important for the development of mankind, but said that this is often overlooked. Because of this, it called it the Unacknowledged Revolution .

Appreciation

Eisenstein has received a variety of awards and recognitions as well as memberships in the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation , the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation . In 1981 she was appointed a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 2002 she received the American Historical Association 's Award for Scholarly Distinction . She received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in 2004 .

In 1993 the National Coalition of Independent Scholars founded the Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize , which is awarded to its members every six months for their work with their own focus.

See also

• History of printing

Works

• Divine Art, Infernal Machine. The Reception of Printing in the West from First Impressions to the Sense of an Ending . Philadelphia 2011, ISBN 978-0-8122-4280-5 .
• The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe . 2nd Edition. Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-84543-2 .
• An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited . In: The American Historical Review . Volume 107, No. 1 , Washington, 2002, ISSN  0002-8762 , pp. 87-105 .
• Print Culture and Enlightenment Thought . Chapel Hill 1986.
• The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe . Cambridge 1983, ISBN 0-521-25858-8 .
• The printing press as an agent of change . Cambridge 1979, ISBN 0-521-22044-0 .
• Some Conjectures about the Impact of Printing on Western Society and Thought. A preliminary report . In: The Journal of Modern History . Volume 40, No. 1 , Chicago, March 1968.
• The First Professional Revolutionists. Filippo Michele Buonarroti . Cambridge 1959.

literature

• Elizabeth Lewisohn Eisenstein: An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited . In: The American Historical Review . Volume 107, No. 1 , Washington, 2002, ISSN  0002-8762 , pp. 87-105 .
• Peter F. McNally: The advent of printing: historians of science respond to Elizabeth Eisenstein's "The printing press as an agent of change" . Montréal 1987, p. 105 .
• Paul Needham: Review: Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Social Change . In: Fine Print . Vol. 6, No. 1 . Pro Arte Libri, San Francisco 1980, ISSN  0361-3801 , p. 23-35 .
• Cherry Williams: Analytical Intellectual Biography of Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, October 7, 2004, accessed April 29, 2017 . 
• UM to bestow two honorary degrees. University of Michigan, November 24, 2004, accessed April 29, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Frances C. Locher: Contemporary Authors . Thomson Gale, Detroit 1980, ISSN  0010-7468 .
2. ^ Margalit Fox: Elizabeth Eisenstein, Historian of Movable Type, Dies at 92 . In: The New York Times. New York, February 25, 2016 . ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com ).
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Sabrina Alcorn Baron et al .: Agent of Change. Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein . Amherst 2007, ISBN 978-1-55849-593-7 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} James Gleick : The Information. A History, A Theory, A Flood . Pantheon, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-375-42372-7 .
5. ↑ Ivan Illich and Barry Sanders: "For further reading: Annotated Bibliography", in this: Thinking learns to write. Reading culture and identity , Hoffmann and Campe: Hamburg 1988, pp. 148–175, here: pp. 156–157. See Eisenstein's position: “But McLuhan's oracular pronouncements did not provide an adequate starting point.” (Elizabeth Eisenstein: The Printing Press as an Agent of Change , Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge 1979, p. Xi, Google Books )
6. ^ Asa Briggs , P. Burke : A Social History of the Media. From Gutenberg to the Internet . 2nd Edition. Polity, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-7456-3511-3 .
7. ^ Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize. National Coalition of Independent Scholars, accessed April 29, 2017 .