Uses of Literacy

"The Uses of Literacy" was first published in 1957 and in paperback, by Penguin, in 1958.

Fifty years on its importance endures, it remains a work of great cultural analysis.

The distinguished historian, Peter Hennessy, points out "The Uses of Literacy" became an instant classic in the late 1950s and he suspects that is because 'readers felt in their bones that he (Hoggart) was capturing the oldest working class in the world as it was passing through a valve into a mass-consumption society (which it could never abandon once acquired even if it wished to) at the price of losing much of what Hoggart called 'its moral capital".Hoggart asks fundamental questions about mass literacy and popular culture which are as pertinent today as then.

Richard Hoggart, born in 1918, is a British academic and public figure, whose career has covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with a special concern for British popular culture.

He has been Professor of English and the founder of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO and Warden of Goldsmiths.

He retired from formal academic life in 1984.