Although the majority of people possessed a few books, at most a bible and one or two other religious works, it appears now that literacy rates were much higher than had previously been believed, perhaps as high as percent for men and percent for women in european urban centers.

The answer is 85% and 60%. To simplify, although the majority of people possessed few books, at most a Bible and one or two other religious works, it seems now that literacy rates were much higher than had formerly been believed, possibly as high as 85% percent for men and 60% for women in European urban centers. In addition, the general culture that industrialized from the eighteenth-century enlightenment was literary and with the rise in literacy and the book business in the eighteenth century, censorship was uneven in its enactment.