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Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity

Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity

Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity

Illiteracy and Society in Scotland and Northern England, 1600–1800
R. A. Houston, University of St Andrews, Scotland
June 2002
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    Scottish education and literacy have achieved a legendary status. A campaign promoted by church and state between 1560 and 1696 is said to have produced the most literate population in the early modern world. This book sets out to test this belief by comparing the ability to read and write in Scotland with northern England in particular and with Europe and North America in general. It combines extensive statistical analysis with qualitative and theoretical discussion to produce an important argument about the significance of literacy and education for the individual and society of relevance not just to the Scottish experience but to a far broader social and geographical area.

    Product details

    March 2011
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9780511869488
    0 pages
    0kg
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    Table of Contents

    • Tables
    • Abbreviations
    • Preface
    • 1. The ideal of Scottish literacy
    • 2. Structures and trends in illiteracy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
    • 3. Illiteracy in mid seventeenth-century Britain
    • 4. The reasons for literacy
    • 5. Measures of literacy
    • 6. Oral culture and literate culture
    • 7. The politics of literacy
    • 8. Literacy and the Scottish identity
    • Appendices
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Author
    • R. A. Houston , University of St Andrews, Scotland