Print and the French Revolution
Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"
Meaning
Historians have debated whether print helped cause the French Revolution of 1789. They give three arguments:
- Print spread Enlightenment ideas that attacked tradition, superstition, despotism and the Church.
- Print created a new culture of debate, in which people questioned all old values and institutions.
- By the 1780s, printed cartoons and writings mocked the royal family.
There is also a caution. People also read books supporting the king and the Church, and they did not accept every idea they read. Print did not directly shape minds. It opened up the possibility of thinking differently.
Example
In France in the 1780s, secretly printed literature and caricatures showed the royal family as living in luxury while common people suffered. This made people more hostile to the monarchy.