Book ID: CBB925632224

Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation (2015)

unapi

Pettegree, Andrew (Author)


Penguin Press


Publication Date: 2015
Physical Details: xvi + 383 pp., illustrations, maps
Language: English

When Martin Luther posted his "theses" on the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517, protesting corrupt practices, he was virtually unknown. Within months, his ideas spread across Germany, then all of Europe; within years, their author was not just famous, but infamous, responsible for catalyzing the violent wave of religious reform that would come to be known as the Protestant Reformation and engulfing Europe in decades of bloody war. Luther came of age with the printing press, and the path to glory of neither one was obvious to the casual observer of the time. Printing was, and is, a risky business--the questions were how to know how much to print and how to get there before the competition. Pettegree illustrates Luther's great gifts not simply as a theologian, but as a communicator, indeed, as the world's first mass-media figure, its first brand. He recognized the power of pamphlets, written in the colloquial German of everyday people, to win the battle of ideas. But that wasn't enough--not just words, but the medium itself was the message. Fatefully, Luther had a partner in the form of artist and businessman Lucas Cranach, who together with Wittenberg's printers created the distinctive look of Luther's pamphlets. Together, Luther and Cranach created a product that spread like wildfire--it was both incredibly successful and widely imitated. Soon Germany was overwhelmed by a blizzard of pamphlets, with Wittenberg at its heart; the Reformation itself would blaze on for more than a hundred years. This book fuses the history of religion, of printing, and of capitalism--the literal marketplace of ideas--into one enthralling story, revolutionizing our understanding of one of the pivotal figures and eras in human history. (Publisher)

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Reviewed By

Review Bruce Gordon (Spring 2017) Review of "Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation". Business History Review (pp. 186-188). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB925632224/

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Authors & Contributors
Green, Jonathan
Windmuller-Luna, Kristen
Lindsay Starkey
Andreas Janousch
Robin Bruce Barnes
Singleton, John D.
Concepts
Reformation
Printing
Technology and religion
Science and religion
Technology and society
Printing press
Time Periods
16th century
17th century
15th century
Early modern
Renaissance
20th century, late
Places
Germany
Europe
United States
China
Rome (Italy)
East Africa
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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