Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein (review)

Two-thirds of the way through this collection of essays, Peter Stallybrass makes the simple but important claim that early modern printers did not print books, they printed sheets. “It is even more important to emphasize how frequently printers were not even trying to make books,” he writes (p. 340). It seems like a minor distinction, but his comment is important and it emerges from a nuanced study of early modern broadsides, pamphlets, and ephemera—the types of publications which, as he shows, vastly outnumbered printed books at the time. His is a wonderful essay and a powerful reminder that our understanding of print culture is still developing; the field is ripe for continued investigation. Stallybrass’s work is also a testimony to the influence of Elizabeth Eisenstein, whose 1979 work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, transformed the field of print culture studies and laid the foundation for generations of scholars to reconsider the technology of the printing press and the complex relationships among books, printers, authors, readers, and the broader culture. Eisenstein’s impact is undeniable and the editors of the present volume have gathered together twenty essays by scholars from a range of disciplines which collectively illustrate the kind of breadth and depth that has been achieved in this field in the last three decades.

The first set of essays considers “Agents, Agency and Print in Early Modern Europe.” Here, what Gérard Genette called paratextual elements emerge as some of the key “agents” in print culture. Ann Blair explores the ways that errata lists empowered readers to interact with texts, while Margaret Aston’s essay on John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs reveals the way printed illustrations allowed works to be appropriated by different readers for distinct purposes. But humans, too, acted as agents, and Jean-Dominique Mellot’s contribution on counterfeit printers in France is an insightful discussion of the bifurcation between legitimate and counterfeit publishing practices, the economics that gave rise to the latter, and the legal system that attempted to govern it all. Finally, it is worth noting that Paula McDowell’s essay on the printer, author, and “agent” Elinor James is a fascinating examination of agency in the political arena. James composed and printed a series of petitions for Parliament having to do with regulations on the printing trade. Her fiery prose is a thrill to read and, through James, McDowell reminds us how vibrant and telling the study of printed material can be.

Part 2 of the book looks principally at print culture on a global scale, greatly extending and expanding on Eisenstein’s European analysis. These are interesting and valuable essays, opening up discussion of the press’s influence in Scotland, Spanish America, China, the Arab world, India, and Australia. That the press was, in fact, an “agent of change” is clearly seen in how resistant certain cultures were to employing it. Antonio Rodríguez- Buckingham describes how, in Mexico and Peru, viceroys were at the mercy of the Crown and printed materials came only from approved printers back in Europe. When presses were finally established in the New World, their products were still carefully regulated. Likewise, the press in the Arab world has a complex history underscored by a deep ambivalence about the technology. Geoffrey Roper’s sweeping survey of the historiography of Arabic printing reveals how historians of print culture in the Islamic world have attempted to reconcile Eisenstein’s arguments about “print-induced modernity” with the press’s delayed reception in Islamic culture. His call for further work in this particular field is one that should be heeded. Other essays in this section point to fascinating differences in the way print culture was appropriated and used in different countries.

Finally, no discussion of Eisenstein’s legacy can ignore the dramatic shift in communication brought on by the personal computer, the internet, and related technologies. In part...