The Influence Of Gutenberg's Press

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The idea to print work instead of having monks hand write all books out came out of china and Korea. Johann Gutenberg, a german metalworker made the first movable mechanized press in 1452. This press was not the first press but it was the first movable and quickly took out the original press. Now books could be mass printed and eliminated the need for monks to copy and it limited errors and fatigue would not affect the press’ work like it would a monks’. First, the press helped bring about a standard format for writing. According to McLuhan, grammar, punctuation, and spelling were greatly improved. Information became much more readily available to the public and helped make democracies stronger. The press helped make books become available to the middle class as well; now not only the upper class had access …show more content…
Everything can be traced to this source, but we are bound to bring him homage...for the bad that his colossal invention has brought about is overshadowed a thousand times by the good with which mankind has been favored.” (Mark Twain)
If you really look at this quote you can see the impact it has had on everything we read. I love Mark Twain books and I may have never discovered his work had it not been for the Gutenberg press. I ask you to think of everything you’ve ever read and realize that almost all of it is typed out and mass printed with a version of the Gutenberg press. You’re able to keep up in class and study for your hard tests because we have books to use and study out of. We can make new inventions based off other people’s earlier works because there is not just one copy, but thousands.
In conclusion, Before this essay I always thought that the Gutenberg was the first press and had some impact but I had no idea how big it really was. I have a newfound respect and gratitude for this amazing machine invented so long ago. Thank you for reading this and I hope you learned as much as I