"The Freedom to Read" by Charlie Tyson, PhD '23

"Do you hear the bells? Reading’s death knell is being tolled again by critics, teachers, and authors, in books and essays that turn an expectant face toward their own oblivion. Intellectuals and moralists have long worried about people reading the wrong things, or reading in the wrong way, or not reading enough. But this time, the alarm may be justified.

Mass readerships first emerged in the nineteenth century due to the happy coincidence of several factors. These included 'public school systems, cheap wood-pulp paper, browsable bookstores, and taxpayer-funded libraries,' Leah Price writes in her 2019 study What We Talk About When We Talk About Books. Today, there is a darker convergence of trends."

Read more here.