Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Tables xi
4. Preface xiii
5. Acknowledgments xxi
6. I. Historians and Literacy
7. 1. Studying the History of Literacy 3
8. 2. The History of Readers 33
9. II. Americans' Reading Abilities
10. 3 .Literacy and Reading Performance in the United States from 1880 to the Present 75
11. 4 .The Great Test-Score Decline: A Closer Look 129
12. III. Americans' Reading Activities
13. 5. Literacy as a Consumer Activity 149
14. 6. Surveying American Readers 180
15. 7. Highbrow and Middlebrow Magazines in 1920 204
16. IV. Literacy and Diversity in American History
17. 8. Autobiographies and the History of Reading: The Meaning of Literacy in Individual Lives 225
18. 9 .Gender, Advertising, and Mass-Circulation Magazines 245
19. 10. Standardization and Diversity in American Print Culture, 1880 to the Present 272
20. Appendix 295
21. Bibliography 299
22. About the Authors 333
23. Index 335