... European population remained illiterate, the upper classes and many of the bourgeoisie could now read. And they had much more to read, because Gutenberg's invention of movable type had begun the world's first communication revolution. Perhaps of greatest importance was that Europeans began to develop a radically different self-image as they moved from a God-centered to a more humanistic outlook. Humanism began to replace Schlolaticism as the philosophical foundation of European intellectual thought. Humanism was a revival of classical thought, both classical learning and the spirit of inquiry expressed in the great classical writers of Greece and Rome. Both the Crusades and fall of Constantinople (1453) which helped unearth long lost classical texts and revive classical scholarship fueled Humanism. Humanism first appeared in Italy. It was generated by a revival of interest in classical literature and the classical ideals. Humanism was a rejection of the medieval mindset and worldview and ...

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