Western Civilization II / Unit 12 WC2 1112 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Mass Literacy, Ferry's Schools, Cheap Paper, and Yellow Journalism That Made Politics
Captions available
The idea
French male literacy went from under half at the Revolution to near all by nineteen hundred; Ferry's schools of eighteen eighty-two bound the nation in standard French. Wood-pulp paper and the linotype made print cheap. Sensational papers fed opinion rather than testing it, playing up naval races and Dreyfus.
In practice
Le Petit Journal, the anchor's example.
Where people slip
Figures and the law are anchor-only.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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