2 - Re-Shaping the World

Summary

At one level or another, by one means or another, for one reason or another, a higher percentage of the population of western Europe was engaged with books and other forms of the printed word in the nineteenth century than at any time previously. In this as in most things, the various countries were not equal. Experience varied from region to region, from town to town and among different social groups. It depended on literacy rates, on transport and communication, on manufacturing capability, on education, on the requirements of everyday life whether in government, religion or social assumptions and practices.