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- Title
The Development of Literacy: Northern England, 1640-1750.
- Authors
Houston, R. A.
- Abstract
This article discusses the impact of industrialization on literacy and education in Northern England. The first systematic study of literacy in northwest England was completed only recently, and covers the period 1560-1630, when northern England was allegedly still in an economically and commercially primitive state. The low levels of literacy found there, compared with elsewhere in England, have been explained by the supposedly backward and culturally impoverished nature of the society and economy. Nothing is known of 1650-1750, a period before major industrialization, but nevertheless one that experienced pronounced commercial growth associated mainly with the coastal trade plus an important expansion in the scale and intensity of coal-mining and related industries. Yet, by the late eighteenth century, the northeast was one of the most literate areas of England. Study of the intervening period might reveal how long the north continued to lag behind the rest of the country, and when it began to advance to its prominent position. Examination of the occupational profile of illiteracy, of differences between the sexes and between urban and rural areas, and of change over time in these aspects may help to reveal some of the likely relationships between literacy and economic change.
- Subjects
NORTHERN England; LITERACY; INDUSTRIALIZATION; EDUCATION; RURAL population; ECONOMIC policy
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1982, Vol 35, Issue 2, p199
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2595015