Acree explores the history of the Rio de la Plata region that--beginning in the 19th century--has enjoyed the highest literacy rates in South America. The area, which contains modern-day Uruguay and Argentina, is explored through its events and culture, and most importantly its print culture, which are permeated with the literary.

Aguing that the printing press helped in collapsing Spanish imperial control and assisted with the transition to independence, Acree also demonstrates that print culture helped create and nurture a new identity for the region, even through civil war in the mid-1800s and he examines the role of reading in formal education during the twentieth century.

William Acree (Assistant Professor of Spanish)
Everyday Reading: Print Culture and Collective Identity in the Rio de la Plata, 1780-1910
Vanderbilt University Press