Literacy and the Social Order
Literacy and the Social Order
Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England
David Cressy
November 2006
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9780521032469
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In this exploration of the social context of reading and writing in pre-industrial England, David Cressy tackles important questions about the limits of participation in the mainstream of early modern society. To what extent could people at different social levels share in political, religious, literary and cultural life; how vital was the ability to read and write; and how widely distributed were these skills? Using a combination of humanist and social-scientific methods, Dr Cressy provides a detailed reconstruction of the profile of literacy in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, looking forward to the eighteenth century and also making comparisons with other European societies.
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521032469
260 pages
228 × 152 × 17 mm
0.39kg
Available
Table of Contents
- List of maps
- List of graphs
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1. Reading, writing and the margins of literacy
- 2. The acquisition of literacy
- 3. The measurement of literacy
- 4. Literacy and loyalty
- 5. Lay illiteracy in ecclesiastical records
- 6. The structure of illiteracy
- 7. The dynamics of illiteracy
- 8. Literacy and society in England and beyond
- Appendix: illiteracy in 414 English parishes, 1641–4
- List of abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index.
