In An Introduction to Book History, the authors cite Michael Winship’s contention that “literature is a human institution, part of a matrix of social and cultural forces from which it emerges, rather than a pure or abstract ideal, independent of history” (25).
Based on your reading of Finkelstein and McCleery’s opening chapters, write a three-page paper that explores one or more of the “social and cultural forces” that have shaped Western civilization as manifested in the history of the printed book since the mid-15th century.
In subsequent units, you’ll write about the current status of that social or cultural force in the Age of Information and the Internet, and in Unit Four your course-spanning analysis will demonstrate your ability to write an in-depth analysis in response to the questions you begin posing in this unit, so be thinking about how your topic can evolve over several phases.
