The science of reading : information, media, and mind in modern America
Johns, Adrian
The science of reading : information, media, and mind in modern America - Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024 - xii, 490 p. ; ill., 25 cm.
Include index.
The Science of Reading is the surprisingly unsung history of scientific research into reading practices, from the origin of the field in German psychophysics to its current extension into digital and online areas. Starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing through to the present, the practice of reading has been made the subject of extensive scientific investigation, and historian Adrian Johns here explores the questions that motivated this research program, the technologies that enabled it, the ambitions that drove it, and the consequences it produced as it was carried out. Its champions' ambitions extended far beyond the laboratory: psychological experimenters were keen to point out that everything in a modern society depended on the population's ability to read, and to read well. These scientists sought to reconstruct mass education, and the childhood experiences of millions of Americans were reshaped according to their maxims. They sought to transform mass capitalism, and, following a national campaign to boost "reading efficiency," the workplace experiences of millions of American adults shifted as well. They sought to place the defense of the nation on a secure footing, and so servicemen and spies were subjected to their science, from the heart of the Pentagon to the decks of aircraft carriers in the Pacific. By the end of the twentieth century, Johns argues, it would not be an exaggeration to say that modernity itself had been substantially shaped by the conscious application of the scientific study of reading-- For the first time, the story of how and why we have plumbed the mysteries of reading, and why it matters today. Reading is perhaps the essential practice of modern civilization. For centuries, it has been seen as key to both personal fulfillment and social progress, and millions today depend on it to participate fully in our society. Yet, at its heart, reading is a surprisingly elusive practice. This book tells for the first time the story of how American scientists and others have sought to understand reading, and, by understanding it, to improve how people do it. Starting around 1900, researchers—convinced of the urgent need to comprehend a practice central to industrial democracy—began to devise instruments and experiments to investigate what happened to people when they read. They traced how a good reader’s eyes moved across a page of printed characters, and they asked how their mind apprehended meanings as they did so. In schools across the country, millions of Americans learned to read through the application of this science of reading. At the same time, workers fanned out across the land to extend the science of reading into the social realm, mapping the very geography of information for the first time. Their pioneering efforts revealed that the nation’s most pressing problems were rooted in drastic informational inequities, between North and South, city and country, and white and Black—and they suggested ways to tackle those problems. Today, much of how we experience our information society reflects the influence of these enterprises. This book explains both how the science of reading shaped our age and why, with so-called reading wars still plaguing schools across the nation, it remains bitterly contested.
9780226836737
Psychology of Research
Reading Research History
United States
418.4 / JOH
The science of reading : information, media, and mind in modern America - Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024 - xii, 490 p. ; ill., 25 cm.
Include index.
The Science of Reading is the surprisingly unsung history of scientific research into reading practices, from the origin of the field in German psychophysics to its current extension into digital and online areas. Starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing through to the present, the practice of reading has been made the subject of extensive scientific investigation, and historian Adrian Johns here explores the questions that motivated this research program, the technologies that enabled it, the ambitions that drove it, and the consequences it produced as it was carried out. Its champions' ambitions extended far beyond the laboratory: psychological experimenters were keen to point out that everything in a modern society depended on the population's ability to read, and to read well. These scientists sought to reconstruct mass education, and the childhood experiences of millions of Americans were reshaped according to their maxims. They sought to transform mass capitalism, and, following a national campaign to boost "reading efficiency," the workplace experiences of millions of American adults shifted as well. They sought to place the defense of the nation on a secure footing, and so servicemen and spies were subjected to their science, from the heart of the Pentagon to the decks of aircraft carriers in the Pacific. By the end of the twentieth century, Johns argues, it would not be an exaggeration to say that modernity itself had been substantially shaped by the conscious application of the scientific study of reading-- For the first time, the story of how and why we have plumbed the mysteries of reading, and why it matters today. Reading is perhaps the essential practice of modern civilization. For centuries, it has been seen as key to both personal fulfillment and social progress, and millions today depend on it to participate fully in our society. Yet, at its heart, reading is a surprisingly elusive practice. This book tells for the first time the story of how American scientists and others have sought to understand reading, and, by understanding it, to improve how people do it. Starting around 1900, researchers—convinced of the urgent need to comprehend a practice central to industrial democracy—began to devise instruments and experiments to investigate what happened to people when they read. They traced how a good reader’s eyes moved across a page of printed characters, and they asked how their mind apprehended meanings as they did so. In schools across the country, millions of Americans learned to read through the application of this science of reading. At the same time, workers fanned out across the land to extend the science of reading into the social realm, mapping the very geography of information for the first time. Their pioneering efforts revealed that the nation’s most pressing problems were rooted in drastic informational inequities, between North and South, city and country, and white and Black—and they suggested ways to tackle those problems. Today, much of how we experience our information society reflects the influence of these enterprises. This book explains both how the science of reading shaped our age and why, with so-called reading wars still plaguing schools across the nation, it remains bitterly contested.
9780226836737
Psychology of Research
Reading Research History
United States
418.4 / JOH