Within Milton M. Gordon’s Social Class in American Sociology” he defines social class in this passage:
” The horizontal stratification of population by means of factors related in some way to the economic life of the society….designated differences based on wealth, income, occupation, status, community power, group identification, level of consumption and family background.”
The history of social class is very …show more content…
The ability to read and write was originally for the aristocrats and before that high members of the church. This is mainly because the most prominent book wa the bible, with it being such highly regarded text only to be seen, read, studied and recited by priest, bishops, and popes. This resulted to many poor and towns people to have no need to read. However, due to the Enlightenment, during the 17th and 18th century centuries, “education, literacy and learning” were gradually provided to “rich and poor alike”. The rate of literacy increased more rapidly in more populated areas and areas where there was mixture of religious schools. The literacy rate in England in the 1640s was around 30 percent for males, rising to 60 percent in the mid-18th century. In France, the rate of literacy in 1686-90 was around 29 percent for men and 14 percent for women, it increased to 48 percent for men and 27 percent for women In the the 15th