The United States is at a crucial moment in the history of literacy, a time when how well Americans read is the subject of newspaper headlines. In this insightful book, Carl F. Kaestle and his colleagues shed new light on this issue, providing a social history of literacy in America that broadens the definition of literacy and considers who was reading what, under what circumstances, and for what purposes. 
The book explores diverse sources—from tests of reading ability, government surveys, and polls to nineteenth-century autobiographies and family budget studies—in order to assess trends in Americans’ reading abilities and reading habits. It investigates such topics as the relation of literacy to gender, race, ethnicity, and income; the magnitude, causes, and policy implications of the decline in test scores in the early 1970s; the reasons women’s magazines have been more successful than magazines for men; and whether print technology has fostered cultural diversity or consolidation. It concludes that there has been an immense expansion of literacy in America over the past century, against which the modest skill declines of the 1970s pale by comparison. There has also been tremendous growth in the availability, purchase, and use of printed materials. In recent decades, however, literacy has leveled and even declined in some areas of reading, as shown in the downward trends in purchases of newspapers and magazines. Since Americans are now being lured away from the print media by electronic media, say the authors, current worries about Americans’ literacy levels may well be justified.

Literacy in the United States: Readers and Reading Since 1880

Politics & Social Sciences

Damon-Moore, Helen

Kaestle, Carl F.

Stedman, Lawrence C.

Tinsley, Katherine

Social Sciences

Yale University Press

This important contribution to scholarship in social science history examines the development of public education in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. Until the 1950s educational historians emphasized the relationship of schooling to the political system and the development of a common American culture. In recent years a social history perspective has emerged that stresses the socioeconomic influences that tie education to other institutions and processes in society rather than to political ideals. Carl Kaestle's and Maris Vinovskis's study is firmly grounded in this newer perspective. However, their work questions the adequacy of any single-factor explanation of the broad educational changes that occurred during this period - whether it be the emergence of factory production or the broader concept of modernization. They argue that these educational changes were the result of the complex interaction of cultural, demographic and economic variables operating in varying ways in different communities over time. Ethnicity, religion, urban status, the occupational structure, income distribution and wealth of the community all emerge as significant factors in this interaction.

Education and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts

History

Vinovskis, Maris A.

Americas

Cambridge University Press

This important contribution to scholarship in social science history examines the development of public education in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. Until the 1950s educational historians emphasized the relationship of schooling to the political system and the development of a common American culture. In recent years a social history perspective has emerged that stresses the socioeconomic influences that tie education to other institutions and processes in society rather than to political ideals. Carl Kaestle's and Maris Vinovskis's study is firmly grounded in this newer perspective. However, their work questions the adequacy of any single-factor explanation of the broad educational changes that occurred during this period - whether it be the emergence of factory production or the broader concept of modernization. They argue that these educational changes were the result of the complex interaction of cultural, demographic and economic variables operating in varying ways in different communities over time. Ethnicity, religion, urban status, the occupational structure, income distribution and wealth of the community all emerge as significant factors in this interaction.

The Evolution of an Urban School System: New York City, 1750-1850

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Harvard University Press

Pillars of the Republic is a pioneering study of common-school development in the years before the Civil War. Public acceptance of state school systems, Kaestle argues, was encouraged by the people's commitment to republican government, by their trust in Protestant values, and by the development of capitalism. The author also examines the opposition to the Founding Fathers' educational ideas and shows what effects these had on our school system.

Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860 (Past Masters Series)

Hill Wang

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Books by Kaestle, Carl F.