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Growth of Literacy in Colonial America: Longitudinal Patterns, Economic Models, and the Direction of Future Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

F. W. Grubb
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Extract

Literacy underwent revolutionary growth in northwestern Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This revolution coincided with other dramatic changes in European society, such as the industrial, demographic, agricultural, political, and religious revolutions (Deane 1969: 20–84). While the relationships between literacy and these other revolutions are not fully understood, their association is apparent and many potential influences exist (Cipolla 1969; Cremin 1970; Graff 1981: 232–60; 1987a, 1987b; Jensen 1986: 114–28; Maynes 1985: 117–31; Mitch 1984, 1988; Sanderson 1983; West 1978). The transplantation of European society across the Atlantic brought the literacy revolution to the American periphery. While numerous studies have shown that colonial America participated in this expansion of literacy, the common longitudinal patterns of literacy growth across the various regions and populations of colonial America have received less attention.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , Winter 1990 , pp. 451 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1990 

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