Historian Dr. Elizabeth Lewisohn Eisenstein ‘45/44, adjunct professor of history at American University, lectured on "Printing and the Permanent Renaissance."   A specialist in the history of the French Revolution and early 19th century France, Eisenstein focused her later work on printing, the press and the cultural and formal evolution of the book.  Her two-volume study, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1979.

Professor Eisenstein spoke again at Vassar in April 1978 and in April 1981.  She returned in November 1988 as the President's Distinguished Visitor.