"Martin Luther, the first Protestant, was also the central figure in the West's first media campaign. Making effective use of the recently invented printing press, Luther and his allies spread their heretical message using a medium that was itself subversive: pamphlets written in the vernacular and directed to the broadest reading public. But to what extent was the Reformation a "print event"? Who were the readers of this Evangelical literature, and how did they interpret it? What, finally, was Martin Luther's role in publishing the new ideas?" "To date, some of the larger questions surrounding Reformation printing and the early years of Protestantism have been difficult to answer because of a lack of empirically based research. Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther, the first book in English to offer such a detailed analysis of the subject, redresses that situation. Here, Mark Edwards presents the results of his study of Protestant and Catholic pamphlets published in Strasbourg during the early years of the Reformation (1518-1522), shows the remarkable success of the Luther New Testament, and examines the propagandistic challenges posed by Catholic counterattack and inter-Protestant quarrels. Martin Luther's clear dominance of printing during this period (by himself he outpublished his fellow Protestants and his Catolic opponents) gives the study of his writings special significance." "Edwards couples his findings with a Provocative analysis of the ways in which they challenge the accepted history of the Reformation. First, he argues that consideration of who likely knew what about Luther's message, and when, leads to a narrative strikingly different from most published accounts. Second, although Luther tried to control the interpretation of his writings, the message his reading public received was often quite distinct from what he intended, and these discrepancies have profound implications for the study of the Reformation. Finally, Edwards demonstrates that printing, by putting the means of interpretation into readers' hands, raised new issues of authority. In that way, the medium became entangled with the message." "The result of meticulous research and deft analysis, Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther makes an important contribution to the study of the early Reformation and printing. Its findings will likely influence studies on the subject for years to come."--BOOK JACKET.