Category Books

Labyrinths Literacy: Reflections on Literacy Past and Present (Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture) » (Revised)

Book cover image of Labyrinths Literacy: Reflections on Literacy Past and Present (Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture) by Harvey J. Graff

Authors: Harvey J. Graff, H. J. Graff
ISBN-13: 9780822955627, ISBN-10: 0822955628
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Date Published: September 1995
Edition: Revised

Author Biography: Harvey J. Graff

Book Synopsis

A compelling collection by one of the pioneers of revisionist approaches to the history of literacy in North America and Europe, The Labyrinths of Literacy offers original and controversial views on the relation of literacy to society, leading the way for scholars and citizens who are willing to question the importance and function of literacy in the development of society today.

Booknews

Sixteen essays on the relation of literacy to society and the problem-solving, knowledge-creating, and communication side- benefits of the ability to read and write. First published by Falmer Press, 1987. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Foreword
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction to the 1995 Edition
	Introduction
1	Reflections on the History of Literacy: Overview, Critique, and Proposals	3
2	Literacy Past and Present: Critical Approaches in the Literacy/Society Relationship	37
3	Literacy and Social Development in North America: On Ideology and History	61
4	Exaggerated Estimates of Reading and Writing as Means of Education (1867)	82
5	Critical Literacy Versus Cultural Literacy: Reading Signs of the Times?	105
6	Literacy, Education, and Fertility, Past and Present: A Critical Review	114
7	On Literacy in the Renaissance: Review and Reflections	146
8	Literacy in History: Review Essay	166
9	Respected and Profitable Labour: Literacy, Jobs, and the Working Class in the Nineteenth Century	175
10	"Pauperism, Misery, and Vice": Illiteracy and Criminality in the Nineteenth Century	200
11	Literacy in Literature and in Life: An Early Twentieth-Century Example	227
12	Literacy, Libraries, Lives: New Social and Cultural Histories	246
13	On Literacy: Review Essay (1983)	266
14	National Literacy Campaigns in Historical and Comparative Perspective	270
15	Whither the History of Literacy? The Future of the Past	301
16	Literacy, Myths, and Legacies: Lessons from the History of Literacy	318