WHAT TO READ AND HOW TO READ - THE SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF YOUNG PEOPLES READING, OSAGE, IOWA, 1870 TO 1990

Challenging the common image of reading as a solitary activity, this a rticle describes the social settings in which young people participate d in the print culture of a late nineteenth-century small midwestern t own. It focuses especially on two aspects of the social infrastructure of reading: cultural practices that encouraged reading in social sett ings, including the school, Sunday school, public library, and domesti c parlor; and the influence of cultural authorities on the content of children's reading. At school, young people encountered a traditional formal curriculum, mediated through standard textbooks. At Sunday scho ol, too, most young people's reading was defined by the cultural and m oral values of mainstream Protestantism. However, in both of these set tings, traditional boundaries were becoming porous to a greater variet y of printed materials. For imaginative literature, adolescents could also turn to the public library. Analysis of library borrowing records shows that both adults and youth read ''low'' fiction, shared titles, and engaged in a common culture, embracing males and females alike. I n sum, Osage, Iowa, in the late nineteenth century, fashioned an inclu sive world of reading, reflecting rather than prescribing local tastes .