17th Century English Print Culture [45min]

From the advent of the printing press in England, the number of books printed each year steadily increased, and so did literacy rates. With a growing and socially diverse readership appearing over the 16th and 17th centuries, printed texts reflected controversy in every area of politics, society and religion. In the advent of the Civil War, print was used as the ideological battleground by the competing forces of Crown and Parliament. What sorts of printed texts were being produced? How widespread was literacy and who were the new consumers of print? Did print affect social change? And what role did print play in the momentous English Civil War? Presenter Melvyn Bragg moderates a discussion among Kevin Sharpe, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London; Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Keele; and Joad Raymond, Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia.