A variety of contributors explore the implications and the historical background of the future of literacy. We have inherited a belief that a vital literary tradition can uphold humane values, but events of twentieth century history have completely undermined faith in literacy as a stronghold of humanism. George Steiner suggests that literature is a source of authoritarian rule and cruelty, and Douglas Bush links the corruption of language to the decline of humane culture and civilized politics. Eugene Ionesco, Antonin Artaud, Edmund Carpenter, and Ben Bagdikian examine other facets of the crisis that literacy faces in this decade and look at what the future holds in store for literacy and other communication methods. Other contributors are Georges Charbonnier, Eric Havelock, Marshall McLuhan, Jack Goody, Ian Watt, Herbert Marcuse, Paul Goodman, Louis Kampf, and Rene Wellek. The book is divided into three parts: The Impact of Literacy, The Crisis of Literacy (subdivided into "Literacy, Language, and Politics" and "Literature Under Attack"), and The Future: Literacy and the Media. (TO)