The development of English literacy from the reign of Elizabeth to early in the eighteenth century may be better appreciated by seeing it in a broader chronological and geographical setting. By sketching the history of literacy back towards the fifteenth century and by tracing it forward almost to the present the movements and conditions discussed in this book can be seen as part of a continuous evolution. Similarly, by collecting information about the state of literacy in other parts of the pre-industrial world the distinctiveness of the English experience can be better evaluated. One purpose of this chapter, then, will be to continue and enlarge the discussion of the dynamics of literacy within a comparative international framework. Since historical work on literacy is relatively new, still getting started or gathering pace, the remarks which follow will be partly speculative and heavily dependent on the recent findings of others.

A second purpose of this chapter will be to resume the discussion of the value and function of literacy, initiated in chapter 1. The period from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century saw, in most parts of the western world, a general transition from restricted to mass literacy. Skills which were once the preserve of a small clerical and specialist elite became laicized, generalized and widely available. But the processes which governed this important change were neither consistent nor universal. Different European societies were subject to different pressures and constraints and emerged into literacy unsynchronized and with varying amounts of enthusiasm.