READING 1 – GLOBAL HISTORY
THE ORIGINS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS – BENEDICT ANDERSON
Earlier forms of capitalist enterprise book-publishing
International publishing houses ignored national frontiers
1500 – 1550 European prosperity + general industry under the control of wealthy capitalists
Book-sellers concerned to make PROFIT + SELL products seek books which were requested by
contemporaries (une civilisation de masse et de standardisation)
Initial market literate Europe = Latin-readers (determinative fact about Latin it was a language of
bilinguals)
XVI century proportion of bilinguals: small
population is MONOGLOT
Logic of CAPITALISM after saturation of elite Latin market (for bilinguals) potentially huge market
represented by the monoglot masses would occur
Counter-Reformation encouraged a temporary resurgence of Latin-publishing BUT mid-XVII the
movement was decaying
+ European shortage of money more cheap editions in the vernaculars
Revolutionary vernacularizing given impetus by 3 factors (2 of them gave rise to NATIONAL
CONSCIOUSNESS)
1. Change of Latin Humanists revived pre-Christian literature SO Latin more and more
Ciceronian + more and more different from that of Church Latin in medieval times
2. Impact of Reformation + print-capitalism coalition of Protestantism + capitalism
BEFORE Rome won vs each heresy due to better lines of
communication
NOW Luther (1517) – written thesis in Wittenberg seen in every
part of the country – MASS READERSHIP – Luther = 1 st best-selling
author so KNOWN
Protestantism used print-market of capitalism + exploitation of cheap editions reading public
+ its mobilization for politico-religious purposes
Counter-Reformation defended citadel of Latin INDEX LIBRORUM PROHBITORUM
3. Administrative vernaculars spread of vernaculars as instruments of administrative
centralization + universality of Latin in medieval times never corresponded to a universal political system
political fragmentation
Latin’s religious authority never had a political analogue
Last factor of administrative vernaculars predated print + religious upheaval of XVI SO is an independent
factor
CASE OF ENGLAND
Before the Norman Conquest language was Anglo-Saxon
1066 – 1200 language Latin
THE ORIGINS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS – BENEDICT ANDERSON
Earlier forms of capitalist enterprise book-publishing
International publishing houses ignored national frontiers
1500 – 1550 European prosperity + general industry under the control of wealthy capitalists
Book-sellers concerned to make PROFIT + SELL products seek books which were requested by
contemporaries (une civilisation de masse et de standardisation)
Initial market literate Europe = Latin-readers (determinative fact about Latin it was a language of
bilinguals)
XVI century proportion of bilinguals: small
population is MONOGLOT
Logic of CAPITALISM after saturation of elite Latin market (for bilinguals) potentially huge market
represented by the monoglot masses would occur
Counter-Reformation encouraged a temporary resurgence of Latin-publishing BUT mid-XVII the
movement was decaying
+ European shortage of money more cheap editions in the vernaculars
Revolutionary vernacularizing given impetus by 3 factors (2 of them gave rise to NATIONAL
CONSCIOUSNESS)
1. Change of Latin Humanists revived pre-Christian literature SO Latin more and more
Ciceronian + more and more different from that of Church Latin in medieval times
2. Impact of Reformation + print-capitalism coalition of Protestantism + capitalism
BEFORE Rome won vs each heresy due to better lines of
communication
NOW Luther (1517) – written thesis in Wittenberg seen in every
part of the country – MASS READERSHIP – Luther = 1 st best-selling
author so KNOWN
Protestantism used print-market of capitalism + exploitation of cheap editions reading public
+ its mobilization for politico-religious purposes
Counter-Reformation defended citadel of Latin INDEX LIBRORUM PROHBITORUM
3. Administrative vernaculars spread of vernaculars as instruments of administrative
centralization + universality of Latin in medieval times never corresponded to a universal political system
political fragmentation
Latin’s religious authority never had a political analogue
Last factor of administrative vernaculars predated print + religious upheaval of XVI SO is an independent
factor
CASE OF ENGLAND
Before the Norman Conquest language was Anglo-Saxon
1066 – 1200 language Latin
