Getting Beyond Better

Chapter 1

Shifting an Equilibrium

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was born at the end of the fourteenth century, just as change was rippling across Europe. The continent was emerging from a century of death and decay in which famine and plague had combined to kill or displace more than a third of its population. It had been a time of social unrest and seemingly unending war. But now, the population was stabilizing, prosperity was returning, and political power was shifting. As the new century progressed, trade flourished, guilds expanded, and the age of exploration began. The Ottoman Empire rose in the East and the Holy Roman Empire’s grip on Europe weakened. But these changes would pale in comparison with the shift Gutenberg himself ...