since I think that the current "literacy" numbers of 97%+ in the first world are bullshit at least in terms of functional literacy anyway and that in the absence of public schooling the smart fraction's actual literacy in systems like that of Colonial America seems to have been better than today anyway.
The fact that many of the best selling books of all time were published a long time ago should be no surprise even without the supposition that people used to be more literate. The number of books published back then was much, much smaller. A book's distribution is likely to be better when it's one book out of seven to come out that year, rather than one book out of three thousand.
Note that the link you provided doesn't even attempt to argue that literacy rates were as high back then as they are now, it acknowledges the opposite.
Note that the link you provided doesn't even attempt to argue that literacy rates were as high back then as they are now, it acknowledges the opposite.
Funny I don't recall arguing about that there. I was talking about the literacy of the smart fraction. To quote from the link:
In the extensive NAAL survey, only 13% of adults attained this level. Thus, the proportion of Americans today who are able to understand Common Sense (13%) is smaller than the proportion that bought Common Sense in 1776 (20%).
It seems proportionally more Americans bought Common...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.