Amusing Ourselves To Death - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Typographic America

1. Who is Thomas Paine? Wrote the book Common Sense, and is said to be one of the main reasons literacy became so popular. He wrote political philosophy and polemics.

2. What are polemics?  Strong written attack on someone or something.

3. When was the first printing press in America Established? 1638

4. What is Tocqueville? It is a guy named Alexis de Tocqueville who is a French politician and historian.

5. What is deism? Belief in the existence of a supreme being.


REACTION: 

Chapter 3 talks about how writing and print was introduced and started flourishing in America. Newspapers were being written and purchased, and others were also starting to mass educate others by speaking. They made ideas become set in stone by writing them down, which then translated to people who were new at reading, it as the truth. This was the beginning stages of how media was going to affect the human race, but it was too exciting and so new that no one really took the time to look at the future, and besides it was unpreventable honestly. I thought it was interesting when postman said that it's center was everywhere because it was nowhere. Meaning that everyone was somehow being introduced to it all at once, because it was new and very exciting, so it was all of the sudden everywhere. The chapter also talked about our first authors and how successful they were at that time.  Tomas Paine's Common Sense sold more than 100,000 copies, which at that time was as big of a deal as the super bowl is today. I also thought it was interesting how when Charles Dickens had first visited America his recognition is equal too that of how Michael Jackson is today. 
Typography was revolutionizing America, and it was doing at a scary fast pace.