Literacy in the classical world

Upvote:2

A reference to check out is Carlo Cipolla: Literacy and Development in the West. I don't have it right here, and can't find an online version (it's a book from 1969) but found a review here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3786234 which quotes:

By 1750 at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, almost 5000 years had elapsed since the first rudimentary appearance of the art of writing. Yet more than 90 percent of the world's population had no access to this art.

There are many more numbers for specific societies in the book. Of course, the methods used will be open to challenge. Another approach would be to look at todays' worst-off countries and posit that it was even lower in all countries a long time ago; for example, the CIA World Factbook gives a literacy rate for Afghanistan in 2000 at 28.1%.

Jørgen 2101

📝 Did the Nazis regard chemical warfare as inhumane and "Jewish"?
📝 Were the Quebecois ever considered higher-class because they spoke French?
📝 Is (or was) there a version of the Maltese Cross with the right arrowhead missing? Does it have a name?
📝 Why is the nuclear powered USS Nautilus (SSN-571) a museum, when nuclear aircraft carriers are not converted to museums?
📝 Why was the 1944 surrender of 20,000 Germans on the Western Front remarkable?
📝 Why did the United States issue the Monroe Doctrine when it did?
📝 Did galley captains put corks in the mouths of slave rowers to keep them quiet?
📝 When and why was the Shinkolobwe Mine flooded and re-opened?
📝 What were the most used drugs in battles and wars?
📝 What caused the long lasting of peace in during the Heian Period?
📝 Why did Hideyoshi invade Korea?
📝 When and why did round coins become a practical standard?
📝 War deaths in France, 1919/1920
📝 Who said, "Watch your thoughts, they become your words"?
📝 What is the greater significance of the Boer War?
📝 What is the best historical example of conflict between two cultures with differing levels of technology?
📝 When did “Duck, Duck, Goose“ migrate from Sweden to America?
📝 Why was Hannah Ocuish believed to have been mentally disabled?
📝 Perception of the state by an average person in pre-modern times
📝 What was the basic structure of power in the CPSU and how were the politicians at each level chosen?
📝 How long would it take to travel from the United Kingdom to America in 1890?
📝 Why did German U-boats not sink American ships carrying soldiers during WW1?
📝 Why did Napoleon march to Moscow instead of Saint Petersburg?
📝 Why was Caesar at the Rubicon?
📝 Did the USA government aided Spanish Dictator Franco?
📝 About Naval Formations?
📝 Is the use by old masters of camera obscura and optics in general a taboo topic in Art History, or was David Hockney's thesis wrong?
📝 What was the wealth distribution in US antebellum North / South
📝 During World War II, in the U.S., were diapers available?
📝 What is meant by this medieval reference to combat 'under-ground'?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Search Posts

📝 Literacy in the classical world
📝 How widespread was literacy in classical Greek in Europe during the medieval period?
📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
📝 Did the Soviets excel in one area of weaponry during World War II?
📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
📝 Why did China shut itself out of the world in the 15th century?
📝 What is the oldest building in the world still in use?
📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
📝 Why did Chamberlain act to appease Hitler leading up to the outbreak of World War 2?
📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
📝 Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
📝 Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?
📝 How did the ruling class in the Muslim world react to the discovery and colonization of the Americas?
📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?
📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
📝 How did the gold of the new world cause the Spanish Empire to collapse?
📝 Why does the US use the opposite convention to the rest of the world for colour-coding harbour buoys?
📝 What tactical situations made the use of traditional horse cavalry effective in World War II?
📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?
📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
📝 Why was the Western Front so static in World War I?
📝 "More Frenchmen bore arms for the Axis than for the Allies during the Second World War"?

Literacy in the classical world

More post

Search Posts

Related post