The Portable Enlightenment Reader & Accessibility

Whilst reading the material for 9/22, especially with the concern of coming up with a text that exemplifies the social nature of print or manuscript publication, my thoughts continuously drifted to the need for fast paced materials in today’s society. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for society to crave quite a bit of information in a condensed form. These thoughts are what helped me choose my example for this class, which is my e-reader version of “The Portable Enlightenment Reader” edited by Isaac Kramnick. Firstly, I want to talk about the book itself. “The Portable Enlightenment Reader” was first published in 1995, far after the contents of the book were initially written, but as Kramnick states in his introduction, this work attempts to present a “rough guide [that] would emphasize the hundred-plus years from the 1680s to the 1790s.” Rather than considering how the material in this anthology, such as “The New Science” by Francis Bacon was initially presented to the reader, I want to focus on the publication of this anthology, and the purpose it serves. As Darnton finishes his essay with, “books do not merely recount history, they make it.” My reasoning for arguing that “The Portable Enlightenment” is historically important as a text starts with the information it holds. There are numerous enlightenment publications within this anthology, and for the great price of XYZ, you can have them all in your library. It is ironic, because upon owning this work, you have a portable version of the enlightenment, and I believe that really speaks to 20th and 21st century students/scholars/anybody who reads (we are all really students, aren’t we? I digress.) To make this even more 21st century friendly, my personal copy of “The Portable Enlightenment Reader” is located in the Kindle app on my iPad, as well as phone. I, as well as countless other people, take my phone with me pretty much everywhere I go. This brings a whole new meaning to portable that Kramnick might not have even thought of when he first published this anthology in 1995. I believe that the social nature of publication is continuously changing. My example of “The Portable Enlightenment Reader” touches base on how today’s society wants a lot of information in one place, and for things to be easily reached.