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By Sherwood

In chapter 2 of “A Nation Transformed by Information,” author Richard D. Brown argues that communication in the American colonies was top down. Printed goods were exclusively reserved for magistrates and merchants, and education for the gentry.

Brown’s interpretation of the colonial American information infrastructure contends with an argument I made in class on Thursday 1/22. I maintained that the American revolution was in part the result of an increasingly popular printing culture in both Europe and America that allowed for the dissemination of ideas through books like Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, John Locke’s 2nd Treatise on Government and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. This argument is largely predicated on the idea that by 1776, information was accessible. In order to defend my argument, I tried to think of some possible ways in which Protestantism may have helped undermine the top down way in which information was typically disseminated.

The hierarchical communication structure Brown describes was decidedly not Protestant. Otherwise, it would have been more accessible to the common man or woman and available for their personal interpretation. Brown concedes that the presence of Protestantism definitely improved literacy in colonial America with the intention of proliferating the Bible. Protestants believed that by studying and reflecting on the Bible one might foster a greater personal relationship with God. But Brown stops there. He seems too wrapped up in his interpretation of colonial America as a society where information was inaccessible to the common man or woman, and subsequently, he wrongfully dismisses the contribution of Protestantism as relatively inconsequential.

I would argue that by improving literacy, Protestantism allowed for the creation of a “public sphere” in colonial America, through which colonists were able to openly express their ideas, including their discontent with Britain. In her post for Tuesday 1/20, Avery put this phenomenon in anthropological terms, calling it a “feedback loop made up of the constant interaction of the individual and society.” The anecdote about Milcah Moore’s book perfectly demonstrates the kind of literate community I’m thinking of.

TL;DR: Brown oversimplifies the information infrastructure of colonial America by calling it top down. Protestant-sposored literacy encouraged an open discourse between all colonists.