The popular education and adult literacy movements in Chile have historically represented competing paths toward a literate society: one born and nurtured through bitter nineteenth-century labor struggles, the other a compensatory effort by the modern state to limit the political potential of literacy. Robert Austin's book explores the contest between the state and popular education in three paradigmatic Latin American regimes: that of Eduardo Frei Montalva (Christian Democrat, 1964-70), Salvador Allende (Socialist, 1970-73) and Augusto Pinochet (Dictator, 1973-90). Robert Austin's engaging narrative captures the relationship between the Chilean state, formal and non-formal literacy, and popular education, from the demise of liberal capitalism to the consolidation of neoliberalism. This remarkable investigation of the dynamic link between the historical process, literacy, and pedagogy celebrates popular education's victory in securing the inclusion, and subsequent empowerment, of women and ethnic minorities. The State, Literacy, and Popular Education in Chile, 1964-1990 will be of great interest to political scientists, cultural historians, and scholars of education.

The bibliography offers information on research about writing and written language over the past 50 years. No comprehensive bibliography on this subject has been published since Sattler's (1935) handbook. With a selection of some 27,500 titles it covers the most important literature in all scientific fields relating to writing. Emphasis has been placed on the interdisciplinary organization of the bibliography, creating many points of common interest for literacy experts, educationalists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, cultural anthropologists, and historians. The bibliography is organized in such a way as to provide the specialist as well as the researcher in neighboring disciplines with access to the relevant literature on writing in a given field. While necessarily selective, it also offers information on more specialized bibliographies. In addition, an overview of norms and standards concerning 'script and writing' will prove very useful for non-professional readers. It is, therefore, also of interest to the generally interested public as a reference work for the humanities.

Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write. One would expect that as the world enters the 21st century of the Third Millennium, we wouldn't even need to discuss such a topic. But alas, that is not the case. Even in the United States, the only so-called superpower left standing at the moment, the rate of illiteracy is astonishing. Some cynics say that there is no cause for alarm since the rich elite class needs millions of workers for low-paid jobs and the less educated the better. Others say that the lack of literacy is the fault of the schools and that if we double the pay of the teachers, they will somehow suddenly be interested in teaching. Still others say that with television and VCRs everywhere, who needs to read and write anyway. In this book we have collected citations, sorted and indexed them in a way which we hope will be useful for those seeking further information on this topic. At the beginning, we offer excerpts from some of the fundamental reports summarising the dismal situation.