Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question

Early printers deliberately made printed books resemble handwritten manuscripts by imitating ornamental handwritten letter styles, hand-painting borders with foliage patterns, and leaving blank spaces for hand-painted illustrations. In books made for the rich, each copy was individually decorated, ensuring no two copies were identical.

This was done to make the new technology acceptable to its primary buyers — the wealthy elites — who preferred uniqueness and were familiar with the look of manuscripts. Mass-produced identical copies would have seemed inferior to them.

This suggests that introducing a radically new technology requires it to conform to existing tastes and expectations of the dominant consumer group. Radical change is rarely accepted abruptly; printers had to disguise innovation behind familiar appearances to gain social acceptance, showing that cultural resistance can slow even highly efficient new technologies.

Source: Chapter 5, Section 2.1 — Gutenberg and the Printing Press

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What examiners look for:

• Two clear points: (1) What printers did — imitated manuscript styles, hand-painted borders, kept spaces for decoration, ensured each copy was unique. (2) Why — to appeal to wealthy elites who valued uniqueness and were accustomed to manuscripts.
• The inference/conclusion about technology introduction: new technology must adapt to existing cultural expectations to gain acceptance.
• Ground your answer in the textbook — mention specific details like "metal letters imitating ornamental styles," "borders illuminated by hand," "elites preferred lack of uniformity."
• Avoid vague generalisations. The examiner rewards textbook-specific evidence linked to a clear analytical point.