Few could have predicted that one outcome of the digital revolution in American society would be a renewed interest in reading. When Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America was published in 2004, it voiced concerns about dwindling numbers of American readers and hailed the positive social, moral and educational outcomes of literature, making a spirited case to restore reading to the heart of American culture. Although Oprah's Book Club had enjoyed popularity for years, the NEA's Big Read programme which emerged in response to the Reading report further helped to promote literature as the core of all that is good (read: cultured and educated) in society.
A pioneering new volume, Education and the Culture of Print in Modern America, emerges from this context to analyse and explore the ways in which not just literature, but all the other varied forms of printed text, have also educated Americans in the last 135 years. As Adam R. Nelson attests in his introduction, “all print educates through a complex and continual process of negotiation – or contestation – between institutions and individuals, writers and readers, teachers and students, ‘lessons’ and ‘learners’” (9).
With the editors' introduction and conclusion acting as bookends, the volume comprises nine essays written by American scholars from diverse academic backgrounds, lending the collection an array of perspectives and examples to answer Nelson's ostensibly simple question: “How does print educate?” (12). The collection takes a holistic approach to printed text, thinking beyond the school gate to include magazines and religious texts in settings such as libraries and work camps, often drawing upon identity politics to determine the ways in which texts have been educationally deployed or received.
When reading and learning overlap, the resulting “construction of meaning” is described by Nelson as “a complex process in which various parties exercise power” (5). His view is supported by the case studies in this collection, which reveal how an imbalance in authority between the producers and consumers of printed text can potentially result in censorship, propaganda or educational empowerment. This polarization is characteristic of the volume – organized into four parts, the essays seem to be purposely juxtaposed in order to highlight the inevitable contradictions in a field of such scope. In illuminating the grounds for debate in this new field of study and posing more questions than it answers, Education and the Culture of Print provides plenty of food for thought, fuelling the reader with curiosity and paving the way for further research in this area.
All of the angles of analysis within this book are insightful and noteworthy, but when read together are not quite congruous enough to leave the reader feeling satisfied with any singular evaluation. In leaving disconnections between the case studies, however, the reader is afforded the opportunity to make their own judgement and draw their own conclusions. Ironic, perhaps, from a book which aims to glean a clearer understanding of how print educates.
