Reading Mania

AS LITERACY AND SCHOOLS SPREAD IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ,THERE WAS A VIRTUAL READING MANIA;
1)By the end of the I8th century,literacy rates in Europe were as high as 60 to 80 %.
People wanted books to read and printers producedthem in ever increasing numbers.
2)Booksellers employed pedallers to sell the books .there were ballads,folktales etc.that reached the ordinary readers as well.
3)In England penny chap books were sold by chapman and in france billotheque bleue low priced books were sold so that even the poor could buy them.
4)Newspaper,journals writings of the thinkers.dicoveries of the scientist etc. became more accesible to the common people and thus influenced a wider circle of readers.

PRINT CULTURE CREATED THE CONDITIONS WITHIN WHICHTHE FRENCH REVOLUTION OCCURED.

1)Print popularised the idea of enlightened thinkers they argued for the rule of reason and rationality rather than custom .
They attacked the sacred authority of church and despotic power of state.
2)print created a new culture of dailogue and debate .
All existing ideas and beliefs began to be questioned by the public as such new ideas of social revolution came into being.
3)by 1780s ,there was an out pouring of literature that mocked the royality and critisized their morality .
cartoons and caricatures had an impact on thinking of people .
This led to hostile sentiments against monarchy.