The Birth of Modern European Thought - Study Notes

The New Reading Public
In 1850 about half the population of western Europe and a much higher proportion of Russians were illiterate. That situation changed during the next half century.
Advances in Primary Education
The attack on illiteracy proved most successful in Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia, where by 1900 approximately 85 percent or more of the people could read.
The new primary education in the basic skills of reading and writing and elementary arithmetic reflected and generated social change. They also hoped that literacy might help the poo…