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Difficulty: HardColonial Society, Culture, and Politics

Source:

'About this time, our club [the Junto] meeting... a proposition was made by me, that, since our books were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the queries, it might be convenient to us to have them all together where we met... And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription library... The books were imported; the library was opened one day in the week for lending to the subscribers... The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. Reading became fashionable; and our people... became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ'd by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries.'
—Benjamin Franklin, *Autobiography*, describing events in 1731

The developments described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following historical trends in the British North American colonies?

  1. A
    The dominance of Puritan covenant theology in shaping civic institutions across all British colonial regions.
  2. The growth of a shared transatlantic print culture and the spread of Enlightenment ideas.Answer
  3. C
    The successful implementation of British mercantilist policies to promote colonial industrial self-sufficiency.
  4. D
    The expansion of government-funded educational programs to transition former indentured servants into contract-free chattel laborers.

Answer

The growth of a shared transatlantic print culture and the spread of Enlightenment ideas.
The correct answer is correct because the establishment of the Junto and the subscription library in Philadelphia, along with the importation of books from Europe, demonstrates the growth of a transatlantic print culture and the spread of Enlightenment ideals regarding reason, education, and civic improvement in the colonies.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to identify the key activities described.
The text describes the importation of books, the creation of a subscription library, and the spread of reading and education among colonials in Philadelphia.
To identify the historical phenomenon being demonstrated.
2
Connect these activities to broader mid-eighteenth-century colonial trends.
The importation of texts and interest in literature relate to the transatlantic print culture and the spread of Enlightenment values (self-improvement, reason, civic participation).
To match the specific context with the correct historical trend.
3
Evaluate the options and eliminate distractors using historical knowledge.
Eliminate options related to mercantilism, Puritan dominance in the Middle colonies, and labor system transitions, as they are historically inaccurate or irrelevant to the text.
To verify the correct option.

Key Concept

The development of colonial culture through print networks and the Enlightenment.
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Topics

Colonial Society, Culture, and Politics

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