Reading and ideology
The Case of the Free Public Libraries Movement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6293208 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kate Spowage (0000-0003-3736-2104, University of Leeds, corresponding author), H G Toth (0000-0003-2865-7162, University of Oxford) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 513-532 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Political Ideologies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9317 • E-ISSN: 1469-9613 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569317.2022.2112083 |
| OpenAlex | W4293224873 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
This article examines social debates on mass reading in Britain, linking them to the free public libraries movement of the mid-19th century. It argues that free public libraries were defended on the grounds of a piecemeal, eclectic, but nonetheless identifiable vernacular theory of ideology that emerged over the course of a century. This theory treated literary texts as containers of ideas and values that could be transmitted to readers. It responded to the social tensions emerging from industrial capitalist society, but located conflict in the realm of ideas, rather than in material reality. It thus offered an idealist account of class conflict, positing both that dissent was rooted in the new phenomenon of mass reading, and that it could be resolved by encouraging workers to consume particular texts. Our aim is to show that, while such a theory of ideology was demonstrably reductive and flawed, it was part of what compelled the British State to pass the Public Libraries Act in 1850 and therefore merits exposition
Aesthetics · Dissent · Dominant ideology · Epistemology · Exposition (narrative · Ideology · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Realm · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Vernacular · Irish and British Studies · Law · Library Science and Administration · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy
A Social History of Education in England
The English common reader
The labouring classes in early industrial England, 1750-1850
Literacy and Popular Culture
Making of the English Working Class
The class struggle and the industrial revolution
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Class struggle and the industrial revolution
Mutual Improvement Societies in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 183 5‐1900
William Lovett and the National Association for the Political and Social Improvement of the People
The Education of the Poor; The History of a National School, 1824-1974
| Highly cited | No |
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