Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe--and Started the Protestant Reformation
Written by Andrew Pettegree
Narrated by Paul Hecht
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Andrew Pettegree
Andrew Pettegree, FBA, is one of the leading experts on Europe during the Reformation. He currently holds a professorship at St Andrews University where he is the director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue Project. He is the author of The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself (winner of the Goldsmith Prize) and Brand Luther: 1517, Printing and the making of the Reformation, among other publications.
Related to Brand Luther
Related audiobooks
Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reformation: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Puritans: A Transatlantic History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The English and Their History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Reform Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why the Reformation Still Matters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edmund Burke: The First Conservative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51848: Year of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Democratization of American Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Birth of Classical Europe: A History From Troy to Augustine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Education of Henry Adams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fundamentalism and American Culture: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Life of Jonathan Edwards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charles Dickens: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackson: The Iron-Willed Commander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reformed Pastor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Brand Luther
32 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A unique look at the Protestant Reformation through the rise of print media and the dominance of “little” Wittenberg.. So interesting well researched, and well told!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fascinating and informative look at the Reformation from a technological perspective. Given the importance of music, both liturgical and domestic, to Luther himself as well as to the Reformation movement, it's unfortunate that the subject appears only briefly in the final part of the book. Nothing at all is said of the development of the sub-specialty of music printing.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5An interesting but somewhat repetitive history of the Reformation that does not at all live up the implication in its title, i.e., that Martin Luther somehow defined his brand and marketed it to the benefit of the Reformation.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a carefully sculpted and lucid biography of Martin Luther poised against the background of the printing press and books in Germany circa 1500. Luther, a bright intellectual and young Augustinian monk posted his thesis against indulgences and their abuse on the cathedral door at Wittenberg. It helped to churn an already current of criticism toward Rome, tapped into the rise of political power by the Princes in Germany and eventually unleashed a schism of doctrinal divisiveness that became known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther was a master of media manipulation through the printing press with the knowledge that the “oxygen of publicity was a matter of life and death.” He also paid attention to the education of girls, raising the level of literacy where his church took hold. His use of German rather than Latin reached out to the ordinary people of the land. Throughout the book there are illustrations of the fine woodcuts that helped popularize his writings. Luther read the political scene very well and was skilled at energizing market forces in his behalf. As one who participates in ecumenical dialogue, I found the book very helpful in gaining a clearer picture of Luther with human qualities rather than a rigid dogmatic figure of History. Pettegree’s book is a timely publication for the 500-year Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. I purchased this for my personal library.