Leveling Up in Eliza Cook's Journal of Popular Progress

Abstract

Abstract:

Eliza Cook's Journal is often considered an unambiguous example of a midcentury journal of popular progress—that is, the kind of journal that addressed both middle- and working-class audiences but singled out the latter for educational and cultural improvement, or "leveling up." This essay reconsiders Cook's prose contributions to her journal, noting how frequently she critiques middle-class culture as needing improvement. It argues that Cook sought to balance the rhetoric of leveling up that permeated other contributions to her paper by ridiculing the middle classes and celebrating the value of working-class culture as it was.