How the printing press ushered in a free speech revolution

Ever wonder why we make a big deal of the invention of the printing press in school?

FIRE's Ella Ross discusses how important this technological innovation was for free speech and freedom of information, and how it allowed more than just those in power to hear and be heard.

*Procession of the True Cross, Gentile Bellini, 1490s
*A page from the Diamond Sutra, 868 CE.
*62 bisher unveröffentlichte handzeichnungen zu dem Elementarwerk von Johann Bernhard Basedow, Daniel Chodowiecki
*Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with the Defeated Emperor, Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy (Netherlandish (active Bruges), 1482
*Luther hammers his 95 theses to the door, Ferdinand Pauwels, 1872
*Image from page 77 of Deutschlands letztere drei Jahrhunderte, oder: des deutschen Volkes Gedenk-Buch an seiner Väter Schicksale und Leiden seit drei Jahrhunderten, etc, by Franz Lubojatzky, 1858
*Title page of Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543
*Luther vor dem Reichstag in Worms, Anton von Werner, 1877
*Marshall, P. (2017). 1517: Martin Luther and the invention of the Reformation. Oxford University Press.
*Morgan, J. C. (1971). The Development of the Printing Press. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 119(5177), 281–293.