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During the recent knitting thread, an interesting question arose: while there are books with knitting instructions available from the period, how likely was the average person to use such a resource; or, how literate, in general, was the average person?
My own thought, having had the chance to go through a few school books of the era, as well as having a fascination with mid-century literature, is that while the average working class or middle class person may not have access to years of advanced schooling, the elementary education possible was of a higher standard of literacy than what is expected today.
For example--the Horatio Hornblower books are hardly considered "light reading for youth" today, but were exciting pop fiction adventure stories, read by boys of young ages as well as adults, in the 19th century. The same with some of the classic authors, like Austen, Dickens, and their cadre; these authors are taught at the college level, but are rarely "attempted" by young people, and yet in the mid-century, they were popular authors--Dickens having his greatest successes as a serial story teller (period soap operas?) We may consider them "hard to read" or "thick going"--and yet, this is the "light reading" of the era, which doesn't say anything glowing about our modern literacy level. :)
Without other media, the written word was news, entertainment, edification, and enlightenment--if a person learned to read, they opened unlimited resources for themselves.
Taking only the popularity of the written word, my own opinion is that folks of the 19th century would be just as likely, if not more likely, to have at least basic reading skills.
However.... the question is wide open!!
Please contribute any documentable anecdotes, statistics, or examples that illustrate literacy, or the lack thereof, for citizens of the 19th century!
My own thought, having had the chance to go through a few school books of the era, as well as having a fascination with mid-century literature, is that while the average working class or middle class person may not have access to years of advanced schooling, the elementary education possible was of a higher standard of literacy than what is expected today.
For example--the Horatio Hornblower books are hardly considered "light reading for youth" today, but were exciting pop fiction adventure stories, read by boys of young ages as well as adults, in the 19th century. The same with some of the classic authors, like Austen, Dickens, and their cadre; these authors are taught at the college level, but are rarely "attempted" by young people, and yet in the mid-century, they were popular authors--Dickens having his greatest successes as a serial story teller (period soap operas?) We may consider them "hard to read" or "thick going"--and yet, this is the "light reading" of the era, which doesn't say anything glowing about our modern literacy level. :)
Without other media, the written word was news, entertainment, edification, and enlightenment--if a person learned to read, they opened unlimited resources for themselves.
Taking only the popularity of the written word, my own opinion is that folks of the 19th century would be just as likely, if not more likely, to have at least basic reading skills.
However.... the question is wide open!!
Please contribute any documentable anecdotes, statistics, or examples that illustrate literacy, or the lack thereof, for citizens of the 19th century!
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