As Houston explains in "Literacy in Early Modern Europe" the mid sixteenth century saw an "explosion" in the amount of printed works which "brought the printed page into the forefront of both popular and elite culture, creating a huge potential for both new reading and new patterns of thought?óÔé¼?ªAt the same time- political, commercial and religious change confronted more and more people with the products of print." To understand whether printing revolutionised society in the early modern period is a difficult task. To revolutionise is to change completely and whether printing altered society is unquestionable, but whether it revolutionised...
increased the awareness of literacy also revolutionary in the same educational sense as Lawrence Stone explains the post Reformation religion saw the emergence of "grandiose schemes for a fully fledged national education system at all levels from primary to university and research institute" had printing not come about the ability to teach from set texts in many schools would have not been able to take place. Therefore Printing was certainly revolutionary, it changed the way society was organised in terms of creating new institutions, a new culture, spread new religious ideas and created political controversy more so than ever before.