Elizabeth Eisenstein

Elizabeth Lewisohn Eisenstein is an American historian of the French Revolution and early 19th century France. She is well-known for her work on the history of early printing, writing on the transition in media between the era of 'manuscript culture' and that of 'print culture', as well as the role of the printing press in effecting broad cultural change in Western civilization.

Career

Eisenstein was educated at Vassar College where she received her B.A., then went on to Radcliffe College for her M.A. and Ph. D. It was there she studied under Crane Brinton. She taught at American University from 1959 to 1974, then the University of Michigan, where she was the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History. [Cherry Williams, "Analytical Intellectual Biography of Elizabeth L. Eisenstein" (student paper, UCLA, 2004), 27. Student Digital Library, IS 281. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/maack/StudentLibrary.htm] In 1979 she was resident consultant for the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. [The Library of Congress. "Book and Library History Update (November 2001) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin." http://www.loc.gov/lov/lcib/0111/cfb.html]

She has held positions as a fellow at the Humanities Research Center of the Australian National University and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto). Eisenstein was visiting professor at Wolfson College, Oxford, and published her lectures from that period as "Grub Street Abroad". She is currently professor emerita at University of Michigan. [Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, "An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited," "American Historical Review" 107, no. 1 (February 2002): 105.]

"The Printing Press as an Agent of Change"

Eisenstein's best-known work is "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change", a two-volume, 750-page exploration of the effects of movable type printing on the literate elite of post-Gutenberg Western Europe. In this work she focuses on the printing press's functions of dissemination, standardization, and preservation and the way these functions aided the progress of the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. Eisenstein's work brought historical method, rigor, and clarity to earlier ideas of Marshall McLuhan and others, about the general social effects of such media transitions.

This work provoked debate in the academic community from the moment it was published [Peter F. McNally, ed., "The Advent of Printing: Historians of Science Respond to Elizabeth Eisenstein's "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" (Montreal: McGill University Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, 1987).] and is still inspiring conversation and new research today. [Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin, eds. "Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies After Elizabeth L. Eisenstein" (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007).] Her work also influenced later thinking about the subsequent development of digital media. Her work on the transition from manuscript to print influenced thought about new transitions of print text to digital formats, including multimedia and new ideas about the definition of text. [James A. Dewar, "The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead", RAND Paper 8014 (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1998), http://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P8014]

Awards

Eisenstein has received various awards and recognitions, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2002, she received the American Historical Association's Award for Scholarly Distinction [American Historical Association, "2002 Book Awards and Prizes," http://www.historians.org/annual/2003/2002prizes.htm] , and in 2004 the University of Michigan awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. [University of Michigan, "U-M to bestow two honorary degrees," http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0405/Nov22_04/06.shtml]

In 1993, the National Coalition of Independent Scholars created the "Eisenstein Prize", which is awarded biannually to members of the organization who have produced work with an independent focus. [ [http://www.ncis.org/ Independent Scholars ] ]

Selected Bibliography

(The author is Elizabeth L. Eisenstein unless indicated otherwise.)
* Includes a new afterword by the author.
* Series : Lyell lectures 1990-1991.
* Series : The Sixth Hanes lecture.
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References

See also

*History of the book