Reading Good Literature Can Help Restore America’s Civic Virtue |
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Reading Good Literature Can Help Restore America’s Civic Virtue
Americans don’t read literature much any more. I sense, perhaps, a collective shrug from many — who cares if Americans don’t read fiction? Those who favor republican government should care. Reading is a marker of the relative health of a democratic society.
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Several years ago, upon recommendation from a learned acquaintance of mine, I ordered a book by acclaimed English Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope.
When the (very long) book arrived, there was a little sticky note attached to the first page: “You will never read this. — Brent.”
Though considered a classic (and Trollope’s masterpiece), Brent’s humorous prophecy has, so far, proven true. I made it about thirty pages before giving up.
Americans don’t read literature much any more. According to a YouGov survey, 40 percent of adults did not read a single book last year and the median American likely read less than two novels. That’s the case even though the number of Americans holding a four-year degree has more than doubled since the 1970s. I sense, perhaps, a collective shrug from many — who cares if Americans don’t read fiction? Those who favor republican government should care. Reading is a marker of the relative health of a democratic society.
The Tried-and-True Benefits of Good Literature
Studies show those who regularly read literature score higher on measures of emotional intelligence, seeing other people’s perspectives, and social cognition. Yet as Joshua Hren argues in More Than a Matter of Taste: The Moral Imagination & the Spirit of Literature, that’s a minor benefit. Hren says that reading literature “enhances our........