Steven Brint and Kristopher Proctor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199769063
- eISBN:
- 9780199896851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0019
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter surveys the economic, work, and lifestyle habits of the “professional-managerial” class—those strata of citizens who have traditionally been thrift's most consistent and enthusiastic ...
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This chapter surveys the economic, work, and lifestyle habits of the “professional-managerial” class—those strata of citizens who have traditionally been thrift's most consistent and enthusiastic boosters. Evidence resists the popular impression (and caricature by social critics) that this group is today among the most consumerist of Americans. It is shown that although members of this class are relatively more likely to think of their consumption as an opportunity for self-expression, this is neither crass materialism nor does it lack in strenuous forms of self-restraint. It is also shown that rather than material scarcity, the most precious, and by far the rarest, resource in their lives is time. Thus, far from a riot of hedonism and permissiveness, these Americans are, on the whole, a highly disciplined group. Due to the increasing pressures of global capitalism, which has seen the professional-managerial stratum become a truly worldwide phenomenon, it appears they have to be disciplined if they want to stay competitive.Less
This chapter surveys the economic, work, and lifestyle habits of the “professional-managerial” class—those strata of citizens who have traditionally been thrift's most consistent and enthusiastic boosters. Evidence resists the popular impression (and caricature by social critics) that this group is today among the most consumerist of Americans. It is shown that although members of this class are relatively more likely to think of their consumption as an opportunity for self-expression, this is neither crass materialism nor does it lack in strenuous forms of self-restraint. It is also shown that rather than material scarcity, the most precious, and by far the rarest, resource in their lives is time. Thus, far from a riot of hedonism and permissiveness, these Americans are, on the whole, a highly disciplined group. Due to the increasing pressures of global capitalism, which has seen the professional-managerial stratum become a truly worldwide phenomenon, it appears they have to be disciplined if they want to stay competitive.
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199261185
- eISBN:
- 9780191601507
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199261180.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
The social democratic state rises from the Great Depression and Second Word War. And up to the 1970s, the capitalist economies grow enormously, at the same time that social rights were recognized and ...
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The social democratic state rises from the Great Depression and Second Word War. And up to the 1970s, the capitalist economies grow enormously, at the same time that social rights were recognized and the welfare state implemented. The tax burden and the state apparatus grow to face the new social and developmental activities taken on by the state. With the social state emerges plural or public opinion democracy. Political elites diversify, including increasing representatives of the professional middle class. Capitalism also diversifies, and we can detect four models of capitalism: the Anglo-Saxon market model, the European social model, the Asian developmental model, and the Latin American mixed model of capitalism. Particularly in the later two models, a developmental bureaucracy rises.Less
The social democratic state rises from the Great Depression and Second Word War. And up to the 1970s, the capitalist economies grow enormously, at the same time that social rights were recognized and the welfare state implemented. The tax burden and the state apparatus grow to face the new social and developmental activities taken on by the state. With the social state emerges plural or public opinion democracy. Political elites diversify, including increasing representatives of the professional middle class. Capitalism also diversifies, and we can detect four models of capitalism: the Anglo-Saxon market model, the European social model, the Asian developmental model, and the Latin American mixed model of capitalism. Particularly in the later two models, a developmental bureaucracy rises.
Elsa Davidson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720875
- eISBN:
- 9780814785065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720875.003.0005
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
This chapter examines the political, social, and economic milieu of Silicon Valley's established professional middle class. In particular, it considers the ways in which these middle-class ...
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This chapter examines the political, social, and economic milieu of Silicon Valley's established professional middle class. In particular, it considers the ways in which these middle-class professionals channeled frustration about their eroding security and status into a politics of nostalgia for a pre-“New Economy” past, a critique of a “new entrepreneurial” present, during the boom and subsequent bust. In analyzing the political implications of this “cultural politics of class,” the chapter reveals expressions of adult middle-class anxiety and political entrapment that influenced young people's styles of self-definition and aspiration management. It also discusses the attitudes of middle-class adults toward the lifestyle and ethos of younger professionals whom they felt were usurping an older, middle-class order.Less
This chapter examines the political, social, and economic milieu of Silicon Valley's established professional middle class. In particular, it considers the ways in which these middle-class professionals channeled frustration about their eroding security and status into a politics of nostalgia for a pre-“New Economy” past, a critique of a “new entrepreneurial” present, during the boom and subsequent bust. In analyzing the political implications of this “cultural politics of class,” the chapter reveals expressions of adult middle-class anxiety and political entrapment that influenced young people's styles of self-definition and aspiration management. It also discusses the attitudes of middle-class adults toward the lifestyle and ethos of younger professionals whom they felt were usurping an older, middle-class order.
Stephen Schryer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157575
- eISBN:
- 9780231527477
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157575.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
America's post-World War II prosperity created a boom in higher education, expanding the number of university-educated readers and making a new literary politics possible. Writers began to direct ...
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America's post-World War II prosperity created a boom in higher education, expanding the number of university-educated readers and making a new literary politics possible. Writers began to direct their work toward the growing professional class, and the American public in turn became more open to literary culture. This relationship imbued fiction with a new social and cultural import, allowing authors to envision themselves as unique cultural educators. It also changed the nature of literary representation: writers came to depict social reality as a tissue of ideas produced by knowledge elites. Linking literary and historical trends, the book underscores the exalted fantasies that arose from postwar American writers' new sense of their cultural mission. Hoping to transform capitalism from within, writers and critics tried to cultivate aesthetically attuned professionals who could disrupt the narrow materialism of the bourgeoisie. Reading Don DeLillo, Marge Piercy, Mary McCarthy, Saul Bellow, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ralph Ellison, and Lionel Trilling, among others, the book unravels the postwar idea of American literature as a vehicle for instruction, while highlighting both the promise and flaws inherent in this vision.Less
America's post-World War II prosperity created a boom in higher education, expanding the number of university-educated readers and making a new literary politics possible. Writers began to direct their work toward the growing professional class, and the American public in turn became more open to literary culture. This relationship imbued fiction with a new social and cultural import, allowing authors to envision themselves as unique cultural educators. It also changed the nature of literary representation: writers came to depict social reality as a tissue of ideas produced by knowledge elites. Linking literary and historical trends, the book underscores the exalted fantasies that arose from postwar American writers' new sense of their cultural mission. Hoping to transform capitalism from within, writers and critics tried to cultivate aesthetically attuned professionals who could disrupt the narrow materialism of the bourgeoisie. Reading Don DeLillo, Marge Piercy, Mary McCarthy, Saul Bellow, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ralph Ellison, and Lionel Trilling, among others, the book unravels the postwar idea of American literature as a vehicle for instruction, while highlighting both the promise and flaws inherent in this vision.
Nadine Hubbs
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520280656
- eISBN:
- 9780520958340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520280656.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
Chapter 1, “Anything but Country” (along with parts of chapter 2), examines the dynamics of the dislike of country music and the prevalence, since about 1970, of representations of both country music ...
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Chapter 1, “Anything but Country” (along with parts of chapter 2), examines the dynamics of the dislike of country music and the prevalence, since about 1970, of representations of both country music and the white working class in terms of political conservatism and racial and sexual bigotry. The chapter analyzes several commonplace, contemporary cultural representations of a monolithic white working class driven by bigotry. These representations often use country music as proxy for the working-class bigot. I also highlight the professional middle class's role as the narrating class in America's knowledge economy, interpreting and narrating all levels of American life—including working-class existence—in academic, media, and other channels.Less
Chapter 1, “Anything but Country” (along with parts of chapter 2), examines the dynamics of the dislike of country music and the prevalence, since about 1970, of representations of both country music and the white working class in terms of political conservatism and racial and sexual bigotry. The chapter analyzes several commonplace, contemporary cultural representations of a monolithic white working class driven by bigotry. These representations often use country music as proxy for the working-class bigot. I also highlight the professional middle class's role as the narrating class in America's knowledge economy, interpreting and narrating all levels of American life—including working-class existence—in academic, media, and other channels.
Derek Nystrom
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474434256
- eISBN:
- 9781399509015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474434256.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter approaches Lost in America (1985) as a comedic investigation into the contradictions of middle-class life. Starting with the film's skewering of yuppie angst and its complicated relation ...
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This chapter approaches Lost in America (1985) as a comedic investigation into the contradictions of middle-class life. Starting with the film's skewering of yuppie angst and its complicated relation to the hippie counterculture that somehow gave rise to yet was also betrayed by this newly discovered sociological group, the chapter argues that Lost in America is ultimately about the difficulty of imagining professional labor that can generate value outside of the capitalist marketplace. Taking the film's recurrent allusions to Easy Rider (1969) as a form of meta-filmic commentary suggests that Lost in America serves as a meditation on Brooks’ own efforts to pursue an alternative American cinema.Less
This chapter approaches Lost in America (1985) as a comedic investigation into the contradictions of middle-class life. Starting with the film's skewering of yuppie angst and its complicated relation to the hippie counterculture that somehow gave rise to yet was also betrayed by this newly discovered sociological group, the chapter argues that Lost in America is ultimately about the difficulty of imagining professional labor that can generate value outside of the capitalist marketplace. Taking the film's recurrent allusions to Easy Rider (1969) as a form of meta-filmic commentary suggests that Lost in America serves as a meditation on Brooks’ own efforts to pursue an alternative American cinema.
Christopher Robert Reed
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036231
- eISBN:
- 9780252093173
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036231.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
During the Roaring 1920s, African Americans rapidly transformed their Chicago into a “black metropolis.” This book describes the rise of African Americans in Chicago's political economy, bringing to ...
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During the Roaring 1920s, African Americans rapidly transformed their Chicago into a “black metropolis.” This book describes the rise of African Americans in Chicago's political economy, bringing to life the fleeting vibrancy of this dynamic period of racial consciousness and solidarity. The book shows how African Americans rapidly transformed Chicago and achieved political and economic recognition by building on the massive population growth after the Great Migration from the South; the entry of a significant working class into the city's industrial work force; and the proliferation of black churches. Mapping out the labor issues and the struggle for control of black politics and black business, the book offers an unromanticized view of the entrepreneurial efforts of black migrants, reassessing previous accounts such as St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's 1945 study Black Metropolis. The book delineates a web of dynamic social forces to shed light on black businesses and the establishment of a black professional class. It draws on fictional and nonfictional accounts of the era, black community guides, mainstream and community newspapers, contemporary scholars and activists, and personal interviews.Less
During the Roaring 1920s, African Americans rapidly transformed their Chicago into a “black metropolis.” This book describes the rise of African Americans in Chicago's political economy, bringing to life the fleeting vibrancy of this dynamic period of racial consciousness and solidarity. The book shows how African Americans rapidly transformed Chicago and achieved political and economic recognition by building on the massive population growth after the Great Migration from the South; the entry of a significant working class into the city's industrial work force; and the proliferation of black churches. Mapping out the labor issues and the struggle for control of black politics and black business, the book offers an unromanticized view of the entrepreneurial efforts of black migrants, reassessing previous accounts such as St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's 1945 study Black Metropolis. The book delineates a web of dynamic social forces to shed light on black businesses and the establishment of a black professional class. It draws on fictional and nonfictional accounts of the era, black community guides, mainstream and community newspapers, contemporary scholars and activists, and personal interviews.
Janet G. Hudson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125022
- eISBN:
- 9780813135182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125022.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
As implied by the statement made by William Watts Ball—editor of The State—World War I signified hope not only for the African American reformers in South Carolina but also for the whites who saw ...
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As implied by the statement made by William Watts Ball—editor of The State—World War I signified hope not only for the African American reformers in South Carolina but also for the whites who saw themselves as reformers as well. All of these reformers opted to achieve a progressive South Carolina that would generally develop improved standards of living through a prosperous economy, rehabilitation for prisoners, and other such indicators. However, Ball also pointed out that the whites who perceived themselves as leaders would experience disturbance in spite of how the expected changes would prove to be constructive. The white reformers comprised mainly of middle-class professionals who had a common goal of advancing South Carolina. This chapter illustrates how these white reformers advocated changes that they prescribed and would gain control of as they also attempted to ensure social dominance.Less
As implied by the statement made by William Watts Ball—editor of The State—World War I signified hope not only for the African American reformers in South Carolina but also for the whites who saw themselves as reformers as well. All of these reformers opted to achieve a progressive South Carolina that would generally develop improved standards of living through a prosperous economy, rehabilitation for prisoners, and other such indicators. However, Ball also pointed out that the whites who perceived themselves as leaders would experience disturbance in spite of how the expected changes would prove to be constructive. The white reformers comprised mainly of middle-class professionals who had a common goal of advancing South Carolina. This chapter illustrates how these white reformers advocated changes that they prescribed and would gain control of as they also attempted to ensure social dominance.
Cicero M. Fain III
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042591
- eISBN:
- 9780252051432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042591.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the metamorphosis of the black Huntingtonians varied responses to rising Jim Crowism during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Benefiting from increasing ...
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This chapter examines the metamorphosis of the black Huntingtonians varied responses to rising Jim Crowism during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Benefiting from increasing affluence, kin and augmented family networks, strong religious convictions, and education, Huntington’s black working class, in conjunction with working class blacks throughout the Ohio River Valley, engaged in a variety of tactics and strategies to progress. It contends that in building institutions, entering into the public space, and agitating for political inclusion black Huntingtonians formed the “building blocks” for self-improvement, community formation, and racial uplift. In the process, they transformed Huntington into a regional black socio-cultural hub, produced an embryonic black professional class, and further strengthened black Huntingtonians’ cultural, social, and political linkages with the region’s African American population.Less
This chapter examines the metamorphosis of the black Huntingtonians varied responses to rising Jim Crowism during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Benefiting from increasing affluence, kin and augmented family networks, strong religious convictions, and education, Huntington’s black working class, in conjunction with working class blacks throughout the Ohio River Valley, engaged in a variety of tactics and strategies to progress. It contends that in building institutions, entering into the public space, and agitating for political inclusion black Huntingtonians formed the “building blocks” for self-improvement, community formation, and racial uplift. In the process, they transformed Huntington into a regional black socio-cultural hub, produced an embryonic black professional class, and further strengthened black Huntingtonians’ cultural, social, and political linkages with the region’s African American population.
Larry Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226042930
- eISBN:
- 9780226042954
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226042954.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Our traditional image of Chicago—as a gritty metropolis carved into ethnically defined enclaves where the game of machine politics overshadows its ends—is such a powerful shaper of the city's ...
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Our traditional image of Chicago—as a gritty metropolis carved into ethnically defined enclaves where the game of machine politics overshadows its ends—is such a powerful shaper of the city's identity that many of its closest observers fail to notice that a new Chicago has emerged over the past two decades. This book tackles some of our more commonly held ideas about the Windy City—inherited from such icons as Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, Daniel Burnham, Robert Park, Sara Paretsky, and Mike Royko—with the goal of better understanding Chicago as it is now: the third city. The book calls contemporary Chicago the third city to distinguish it from its two predecessors: the first city, a sprawling industrial center whose historical arc ran from the Civil War to the Great Depression; and the second city, the Rustbelt exemplar of the period from around 1950 to 1990. The third city features a dramatically revitalized urban core, a shifting population mix that includes new immigrant streams, and a growing number of middle-class professionals working in new economy sectors. It is also a city utterly transformed by the top-to-bottom reconstruction of public housing developments and the ambitious provision of public works like Millennium Park. It is, according to this book, a work in progress spearheaded by Richard M. Daley, a self-consciously innovative mayor whose strategy of neighborhood revitalization and urban renewal is a prototype of city governance for the twenty-first century.Less
Our traditional image of Chicago—as a gritty metropolis carved into ethnically defined enclaves where the game of machine politics overshadows its ends—is such a powerful shaper of the city's identity that many of its closest observers fail to notice that a new Chicago has emerged over the past two decades. This book tackles some of our more commonly held ideas about the Windy City—inherited from such icons as Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, Daniel Burnham, Robert Park, Sara Paretsky, and Mike Royko—with the goal of better understanding Chicago as it is now: the third city. The book calls contemporary Chicago the third city to distinguish it from its two predecessors: the first city, a sprawling industrial center whose historical arc ran from the Civil War to the Great Depression; and the second city, the Rustbelt exemplar of the period from around 1950 to 1990. The third city features a dramatically revitalized urban core, a shifting population mix that includes new immigrant streams, and a growing number of middle-class professionals working in new economy sectors. It is also a city utterly transformed by the top-to-bottom reconstruction of public housing developments and the ambitious provision of public works like Millennium Park. It is, according to this book, a work in progress spearheaded by Richard M. Daley, a self-consciously innovative mayor whose strategy of neighborhood revitalization and urban renewal is a prototype of city governance for the twenty-first century.
Sumanta Banerjee
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199468102
- eISBN:
- 9780199087471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468102.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Social History
Rashbehari Avenue, and the cluster of streets and lanes behind it, located in south Calcutta, emerged as a neighbourhood preferred by modern Bengali middle-class professionals from the early ...
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Rashbehari Avenue, and the cluster of streets and lanes behind it, located in south Calcutta, emerged as a neighbourhood preferred by modern Bengali middle-class professionals from the early twentieth century, when some of the leading members of this class bought land and built houses there. Eager to get away from the conservative and claustrophobic environs of their old north Calcutta roots, this new generation of English-educated professionals like lawyers, college teachers, and medical practitioners, fashioned a culture of their own—a blend of both their past Bengali literary and musical traditions, and the newly acquired Western social values and behaviour pattern. By the mid-twentieth century, this part of the city expanded further south with the influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan following the 1947 Partition, which changed to a large extent the class character of the demographic composition of its residents.Less
Rashbehari Avenue, and the cluster of streets and lanes behind it, located in south Calcutta, emerged as a neighbourhood preferred by modern Bengali middle-class professionals from the early twentieth century, when some of the leading members of this class bought land and built houses there. Eager to get away from the conservative and claustrophobic environs of their old north Calcutta roots, this new generation of English-educated professionals like lawyers, college teachers, and medical practitioners, fashioned a culture of their own—a blend of both their past Bengali literary and musical traditions, and the newly acquired Western social values and behaviour pattern. By the mid-twentieth century, this part of the city expanded further south with the influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan following the 1947 Partition, which changed to a large extent the class character of the demographic composition of its residents.
Christopher Robert Reed
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036231
- eISBN:
- 9780252093173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036231.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
For over a half century, perhaps the best scholarly work exploring African American life in large, industrialized, northern cities with expanding populations has been St. Clair Drake and Horace R. ...
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For over a half century, perhaps the best scholarly work exploring African American life in large, industrialized, northern cities with expanding populations has been St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945). However, a formal history examining businesses as part of an institutional structure, the role of a professional class, religion and the church, and political organization was never undertaken in Black Metropolis. The present volume presents the contributing factors that produced the contemporarily recognized dynamism of the period between 1920 and 1929 as well as the many impediments encountered. Hindsight has produced a view of life in this vibrant area of settlement, one that was not yet the “ghetto” that future historians in the 1960s would envision and write about.Less
For over a half century, perhaps the best scholarly work exploring African American life in large, industrialized, northern cities with expanding populations has been St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945). However, a formal history examining businesses as part of an institutional structure, the role of a professional class, religion and the church, and political organization was never undertaken in Black Metropolis. The present volume presents the contributing factors that produced the contemporarily recognized dynamism of the period between 1920 and 1929 as well as the many impediments encountered. Hindsight has produced a view of life in this vibrant area of settlement, one that was not yet the “ghetto” that future historians in the 1960s would envision and write about.
Jane Ohlmeyer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199287048
- eISBN:
- 9780191803468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199287048.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter discusses print culture history in Ireland. In 1660, a print culture, primarily although not exclusively English, had become well known in multilingual communities across early modern ...
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This chapter discusses print culture history in Ireland. In 1660, a print culture, primarily although not exclusively English, had become well known in multilingual communities across early modern Ireland. It was present in both mature oral and scribal cultures. However, a lack of evidence makes it difficult to accurately determine the levels of literacy in Ireland, especially amongst the Gaelic Irish. It has been suggested that there was a significant percentage of the reading public in Ireland, consisting of the elite, professional, merchant, and various trading classes.Less
This chapter discusses print culture history in Ireland. In 1660, a print culture, primarily although not exclusively English, had become well known in multilingual communities across early modern Ireland. It was present in both mature oral and scribal cultures. However, a lack of evidence makes it difficult to accurately determine the levels of literacy in Ireland, especially amongst the Gaelic Irish. It has been suggested that there was a significant percentage of the reading public in Ireland, consisting of the elite, professional, merchant, and various trading classes.