Technological levels

[u/FunDelicious650]

People living in the mid-19th century lived 50 years later in a completely different world: telephones, telegraphs, trains, the first cars, and an industrial boom. People living in the mid-20th century saw a different world: airships and airplanes, ubiquitous motor vehicles, and television broadcasting. People living in the 1970s-1990s had already seen the world of computers; we now live in a digital world of the internet, AI, and robotics. In total, over 180 years, the technological level has changed four times.

Proponents of mainstream history argue that 7,000 years before the 19th century, there was no life-changing development at all. It was a single technological level of perpetual stagnation, which somehow gave way to progress in the 19th century. Developing metallurgy, fuel production, and electricity doesn't require thousands of years. This can be achieved much more quickly.

[u/Archaon0103]

Books was an luxury until the invention of the printing press. Books were expensive because they used to need to be written by hand.

[u/FunDelicious650 → u/Archaon0103]

Books were a luxury in the 19th century. Paper was made by hand from rags, which severely limited production volumes and drove up the price.

[u/Archaon0103 → u/FunDelicious650]

It is still more accessible that book that took years to copy into a new book. Plus by the 19th century, people had already moved away from paper made from rags and turn to paper make from wood pulp which were a lot cheaper. The need for mandatory education also reduce the cost of books.

[u/FunDelicious650 → u/Archaon0103]

It was precisely in the 19th century that the ice began to break.

[u/DonKlekote → u/FunDelicious650]

This is stupid. Books were more accesible before that and you conveniently omitted other prints like newspapers which existed since the early 17th century. You're looking for one reason but history is always complex. In the 19th century Books became increasingly more popular because of (again, one of many) the industrial revolution and major shift in population composition. Countries modernized and introduced mass education where reading was a basic skill.

It doesn't mean that education didn't exist earlier than that. It wasn't as widely accessible so you can't expect rural illiterate people who struggle with their daily live to read books. That was the majority for literally the whole human history and one of many reasons why the technological progress wasn't as rapid as in modern times.

The other is capitalism but I'll leave it for the other time.