The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan published by Harcourt 2008. On order
Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth by Marilyn Waring and published in 1999 by University of Toronto Press. Burling HC 79.I5 W384 1999
Home by Marilynne Robinson. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 On order
A Mercy by Toni Morrison. NY: Knopf, 2008 (should be on order soon).
La Perdida by Jessica Abel. NY: Pantheon Books, 2005. Burling, Latino Collection. PN6727.A25 P47 2006
Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@[squiggle][star]! by Art Spiegelman. New York : Pantheon Books, 2008 (on order soon)
Friday, November 7, 2008
A recent Grinnell College graduate reads ...
The Book review recently heard from a graduate, class of 2008 who is trying to continue her college practice of reading several things at once. Here is what she has to say:
. . . At present I am reading What's the Matter with Kansas? and To the Finland Station by Edmund Wilson. I am sure you know what the first one is about. The second one is about the classical history of revolutionary politics. And this other one I have started . . . is the Unknown Mao, the new biography, which is a pretty easy read, only too bulky to be carried anywhere. To the Finland Station starts in the 1700 and follows this French historian, who for Edmund is sort of the first historian to approach history in a progressive manner rather than in a cyclical manner . . .
What is the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank. NY: Metropolitan Books, 2004.
Burling F 686.2 2004
To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History by Edmund Wilson. London: Macmillan, 1972.
Burling HX 36 W5 1972
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang. NY: Knopf, 2005
Burling DS778.M3 C38 2005
. . . At present I am reading What's the Matter with Kansas? and To the Finland Station by Edmund Wilson. I am sure you know what the first one is about. The second one is about the classical history of revolutionary politics. And this other one I have started . . . is the Unknown Mao, the new biography, which is a pretty easy read, only too bulky to be carried anywhere. To the Finland Station starts in the 1700 and follows this French historian, who for Edmund is sort of the first historian to approach history in a progressive manner rather than in a cyclical manner . . .
What is the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank. NY: Metropolitan Books, 2004.
Burling F 686.2 2004
To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History by Edmund Wilson. London: Macmillan, 1972.
Burling HX 36 W5 1972
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang. NY: Knopf, 2005
Burling DS778.M3 C38 2005
What are people reading on SEPTA
On their commute from school and work? Well on this particular day it was cold and rainy and there were only a few readers. They were reading Introduction to Continuum Mechanics; The American People, and also train schedules, maps, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily Metro, and The Daily News.
Illiterate America
Jonathan Kozol. Illiterate America. NY: New American Library, 1985.
R. Stuhr
Although this book is over 25 years old, I don't think that the statistics on illiteracy presented by Kozol have changed. No Child Left Behind may be the only thing that is different, and I am not sure that that notorious piece of legislation has made a difference. I think that too often policies are put in place and carried out in a way that those who are successful continue to manage to thrive regardless of what environment they are thrown into. And those who are suffering or left out will continue to be left out. Programs are not designed to help the most in need but to capitalize on those who are already making it. They will contribute to getting the numbers that will prove the program successful. Not so different from the tax breaks offered time after time to those at the very top--helping those who are already doing just fine.
So, in Philadelphia, the statistics quoted by the Mayor and the president and director of the Free Library show that 2/3 of the adult population of Philadelphia are considered to function at a very low level of literacy, 47% of the school children drop out of school, usually between 8th and 9th grade. Fewer than 1/2 the households in Philadelphia have internet or computers, and nearly all public school children qualify for free lunch (this is an area with a very high population of private school attendees). Philadelphia just announced a $1 billion budget short fall over the next five years and this will mean cuts in library hours and services, cuts to public recreational facilities, and cuts to other social services across the city. These are all places that provide safe havens, programming to encourage reading and literacy, daily homework help and more. This is happening in a city where the Mayor is clearly dedicated to improving the literacy and school attendance rate.
Based on these statistics, I would say that Kozol's statistics have not changed for the better. Kozol is passionate about his topic. In this book, he presents the problem in the starkest possible terms, he finds fault with on-again off-again government funding and over reliance on the private sector, and he is leading a call to arms to address the situation. Kozol makes the argument that both economically and in terms of safety and well being, we all suffer from the high rate of illiteracy in this country and so it is well worth our personal investment and worth political and governmental investment. He describes programs that have failed because of a lack of understanding and respesct for those who would be the recipients of literacy programs, and he describes the grass roots efforts that have been successful. He makes recommendations for successful programs, and Kozol calls on college students and adults from all communities to hit the pavement to recruit for and to offer literacy programs.
Just coming off of the election where we either had the good fortune to be part of the grass roots effort or at least were witness to what can be achieved by people hitting getting out and working together for a common cause ... seeing something that seemed to be impossible come to fruition... I think that this book is worth reading in 2008. It will make you angry and it will make you sad but it may inspire readers to see where and how they can be of service in their community.
Burling Library LC 151 .K68 1985b
Kozol has written many books all on the theme of education and children:
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of A Nation.
HV875.57.N48 K69 1995.
Children of Revolution: A Yankee Teacher in the Cuban Schools. 1978
LA486 .K69.
Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools.
LC2803.B7 K6 1967.
The Night is Dark and I am Far from Home.
LA217 .K69 1975.
On Being a Teacher. 1981
LA217 .K688.
Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope
HQ792.U5 K69x 2000.
Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America
HV4505 .K69 1988.
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
LC4091 .K69 1991.
The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling
LC212.62 .K69 2005.
R. Stuhr
Although this book is over 25 years old, I don't think that the statistics on illiteracy presented by Kozol have changed. No Child Left Behind may be the only thing that is different, and I am not sure that that notorious piece of legislation has made a difference. I think that too often policies are put in place and carried out in a way that those who are successful continue to manage to thrive regardless of what environment they are thrown into. And those who are suffering or left out will continue to be left out. Programs are not designed to help the most in need but to capitalize on those who are already making it. They will contribute to getting the numbers that will prove the program successful. Not so different from the tax breaks offered time after time to those at the very top--helping those who are already doing just fine.
So, in Philadelphia, the statistics quoted by the Mayor and the president and director of the Free Library show that 2/3 of the adult population of Philadelphia are considered to function at a very low level of literacy, 47% of the school children drop out of school, usually between 8th and 9th grade. Fewer than 1/2 the households in Philadelphia have internet or computers, and nearly all public school children qualify for free lunch (this is an area with a very high population of private school attendees). Philadelphia just announced a $1 billion budget short fall over the next five years and this will mean cuts in library hours and services, cuts to public recreational facilities, and cuts to other social services across the city. These are all places that provide safe havens, programming to encourage reading and literacy, daily homework help and more. This is happening in a city where the Mayor is clearly dedicated to improving the literacy and school attendance rate.
Based on these statistics, I would say that Kozol's statistics have not changed for the better. Kozol is passionate about his topic. In this book, he presents the problem in the starkest possible terms, he finds fault with on-again off-again government funding and over reliance on the private sector, and he is leading a call to arms to address the situation. Kozol makes the argument that both economically and in terms of safety and well being, we all suffer from the high rate of illiteracy in this country and so it is well worth our personal investment and worth political and governmental investment. He describes programs that have failed because of a lack of understanding and respesct for those who would be the recipients of literacy programs, and he describes the grass roots efforts that have been successful. He makes recommendations for successful programs, and Kozol calls on college students and adults from all communities to hit the pavement to recruit for and to offer literacy programs.
Just coming off of the election where we either had the good fortune to be part of the grass roots effort or at least were witness to what can be achieved by people hitting getting out and working together for a common cause ... seeing something that seemed to be impossible come to fruition... I think that this book is worth reading in 2008. It will make you angry and it will make you sad but it may inspire readers to see where and how they can be of service in their community.
Burling Library LC 151 .K68 1985b
Kozol has written many books all on the theme of education and children:
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of A Nation.
HV875.57.N48 K69 1995.
Children of Revolution: A Yankee Teacher in the Cuban Schools. 1978
LA486 .K69.
Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools.
LC2803.B7 K6 1967.
The Night is Dark and I am Far from Home.
LA217 .K69 1975.
On Being a Teacher. 1981
LA217 .K688.
Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope
HQ792.U5 K69x 2000.
Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America
HV4505 .K69 1988.
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
LC4091 .K69 1991.
The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling
LC212.62 .K69 2005.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Duel: Pakistan On the Flight Path of American Power
Tariq Ali. The Duel: Pakistan On the Flight Path of American Power (New York: Scribner, 2008)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
During one of the seemingly endless Democratic debates in 2007 when Senator Christopher Dodd opined that General Musharraf “was certainly no Thomas Jefferson” he was firmly in the tradition of U.S. policy towards Pakistan.” Dodd was not complimenting the General for not owning slaves. Rather, he was observing a longstanding continuity of U.S. policy makers backing the military of Pakistan at the expense of that country's chances at genuine democracy and its democratic institutions. That support of the Pakistani military was based on the threat of Soviet expansionism during the Cold War but is now predicated on the “pure fantasy” that there is a jihadi finger ready to squeeze the nuclear trigger.
Ali convincingly places Pakistan's history into a regional context. From the founding of the state which he characterizes as “a big thank-you present to the Muslim League” from the British, to Pakistan's role in the Afghan war against the Soviet Empire in its waning days, to its geopolitical position in the global war on terror, Pakistan suffers from both its propinquity to Afghanistan and its relationship with the United States. Far more of a concern than the jihadists seizing power from the 500,000 man army in Pakistan is the real possibility that by widening the war in Afghanistan (including attacks inside Pakistan itself as proposed by candidate Obama) the sufficient condition is put into place to create a fissure inside the military of Pakistan.
War is about unintended and unforeseen consequences. Operation Enduring Freedom which Ali sees as ensuring that violence and the heroin trade endure is a case in point. An example of the meaty-fisted irony associated with the conduct of war is the fact that the current jihadi manuals being used against NATO and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan were printed at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The manuals which once made the rounds of the refugee camps, when the mujhadeen were seen as plucky freedom fighters, are now lethal reminders of the consequences of what Chalmers Johnson labeled as “blowback.”
This is a useful book that I'll wager is not on the shelves of the public library in Wassila, Alaska anytime soon.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
During one of the seemingly endless Democratic debates in 2007 when Senator Christopher Dodd opined that General Musharraf “was certainly no Thomas Jefferson” he was firmly in the tradition of U.S. policy towards Pakistan.” Dodd was not complimenting the General for not owning slaves. Rather, he was observing a longstanding continuity of U.S. policy makers backing the military of Pakistan at the expense of that country's chances at genuine democracy and its democratic institutions. That support of the Pakistani military was based on the threat of Soviet expansionism during the Cold War but is now predicated on the “pure fantasy” that there is a jihadi finger ready to squeeze the nuclear trigger.
Ali convincingly places Pakistan's history into a regional context. From the founding of the state which he characterizes as “a big thank-you present to the Muslim League” from the British, to Pakistan's role in the Afghan war against the Soviet Empire in its waning days, to its geopolitical position in the global war on terror, Pakistan suffers from both its propinquity to Afghanistan and its relationship with the United States. Far more of a concern than the jihadists seizing power from the 500,000 man army in Pakistan is the real possibility that by widening the war in Afghanistan (including attacks inside Pakistan itself as proposed by candidate Obama) the sufficient condition is put into place to create a fissure inside the military of Pakistan.
War is about unintended and unforeseen consequences. Operation Enduring Freedom which Ali sees as ensuring that violence and the heroin trade endure is a case in point. An example of the meaty-fisted irony associated with the conduct of war is the fact that the current jihadi manuals being used against NATO and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan were printed at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The manuals which once made the rounds of the refugee camps, when the mujhadeen were seen as plucky freedom fighters, are now lethal reminders of the consequences of what Chalmers Johnson labeled as “blowback.”
This is a useful book that I'll wager is not on the shelves of the public library in Wassila, Alaska anytime soon.
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism Andrew J. Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Henry
Andrew J. Bacevich. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Professor Bacevich's The Limits of Power is a slender and powerful little book that is to the ethic of imperialism what Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class was to conspicuous consumption. Since the end of World War II and the founding of the national security state the federal government in general, and the Executive Branch in particular, have acquired power roughly in the same way as John Belushi piled food on his tray in the cafeteria scene in the film Animal House. Not only has this gluttonous acquisition of power continued unabated but the spectator consent-givers that the people of the United States have become have passively watched while the power grab transpired. They only have themselves to blame.
According to Bacevich, a retired U.S. Army colonel and West Point graduate, that the American people persist in their passivity is because they have been co-opted into a reckless consumerism that both excuses and sees as infinite the exercise U.S. power in the world. We find ourselves in the middle of a permanent and global war on “terrorism” largely because of a moral failing. Clearly this is a losing strategy. “American power has limits and is inadequate to the ambitions to which hubris and sanctimony have given rise.” This system perpetuates itself because the modern imperialist “little war” is not something that intrudes on everyday life. In fact, “...most Americans subscribed to a limited-liability version of patriotism, one that emphasized the display of bumper stickers in preference to shouldering a rucksack.” The President may say we are at war but you couldn't tell it by the behavior of the nation. It is not a choice of guns or butter. The only decision left to be made is how creamy do we want the butter?
In the author's view George W. Bush is to blame for a recklessness in office but in regard to the invasion and occupation of Iraq he is firmly in the tradition of the other emperor-presidents who have preceded him. President Bush is certainly part of the longstanding practice of conviction following self-interest. The Bush ideology consists at its core of the belief that history has a purpose (the triumph of freedom over oppression and evil), the United States embodies the cause of freedom, God has chosen the U.S. to ensure that freedom prevails, and for the American way of life to succeed “freedom” must exist everywhere. Of course this was all to be achieved by the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war . However, God's plan for the U.S. was radically altered when the Bush Doctrine sank on its maiden voyage faster than the Titanic.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Professor Bacevich's The Limits of Power is a slender and powerful little book that is to the ethic of imperialism what Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class was to conspicuous consumption. Since the end of World War II and the founding of the national security state the federal government in general, and the Executive Branch in particular, have acquired power roughly in the same way as John Belushi piled food on his tray in the cafeteria scene in the film Animal House. Not only has this gluttonous acquisition of power continued unabated but the spectator consent-givers that the people of the United States have become have passively watched while the power grab transpired. They only have themselves to blame.
According to Bacevich, a retired U.S. Army colonel and West Point graduate, that the American people persist in their passivity is because they have been co-opted into a reckless consumerism that both excuses and sees as infinite the exercise U.S. power in the world. We find ourselves in the middle of a permanent and global war on “terrorism” largely because of a moral failing. Clearly this is a losing strategy. “American power has limits and is inadequate to the ambitions to which hubris and sanctimony have given rise.” This system perpetuates itself because the modern imperialist “little war” is not something that intrudes on everyday life. In fact, “...most Americans subscribed to a limited-liability version of patriotism, one that emphasized the display of bumper stickers in preference to shouldering a rucksack.” The President may say we are at war but you couldn't tell it by the behavior of the nation. It is not a choice of guns or butter. The only decision left to be made is how creamy do we want the butter?
In the author's view George W. Bush is to blame for a recklessness in office but in regard to the invasion and occupation of Iraq he is firmly in the tradition of the other emperor-presidents who have preceded him. President Bush is certainly part of the longstanding practice of conviction following self-interest. The Bush ideology consists at its core of the belief that history has a purpose (the triumph of freedom over oppression and evil), the United States embodies the cause of freedom, God has chosen the U.S. to ensure that freedom prevails, and for the American way of life to succeed “freedom” must exist everywhere. Of course this was all to be achieved by the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war . However, God's plan for the U.S. was radically altered when the Bush Doctrine sank on its maiden voyage faster than the Titanic.
The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule
Thomas Frank. The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule (New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 2008)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
The Wrecking Crew is essentially an intellectual history dissecting movement conservatism's nihilism and how this translates into the exercise of political power. The “wingers” who descended on Washington D.C. like a biblical plague of locusts beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 have systematically sabotaged the liberal state. By placing those hostile to the project of the liberal state in key positions e.g. lumbermen at the head of the Forestry Service, anti-union zealots at the Department of Labor etc. the wingers have been wildly successful at capturing the state and using it to destroy the loathsome liberalism that has been the source of their “oppression.” The conservative formula for victory is to scatter liberal constituencies hallow out the state, and reward your cronies with the loot.
Following in the tradition of Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Frank documents the “defunding of the left” which he characterizes as “the north star of the conservative project.” It is the story of corrupting lobbyists like Jack Abramoff and right-wing operatives such as Grover Norquist and how they preyed upon the suicidal tendency of liberalism to depend on the fair play of its sworn enemies. Throughout the narrative the leit motif of the interests of business are central and defining to the wingers' cause. All the while the saboteurs, relentlessly advancing a pro business political agenda, adroitly shield themselves with the mantle of libertarianism portraying themselves as merely seeking human freedom. In this respect they took a cue from Milton Friedman who advanced the cause of the freedom sweatshops by repeatedly quoting Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell.
This book is very much the case of “it takes one to know one.” If one views Frank's August 8th interview on Democracy Now he candidly admits to once being a college Republican before his defection. By reading this useful book one develops a greater understanding of how we arrived at the point where we are today in the Bush era where we now have a “market based government.” It remains an open question whether the American liberal state was merely “a forty-year suspension of the market's reign” or not.
and Company, 2008)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
The Wrecking Crew is essentially an intellectual history dissecting movement conservatism's nihilism and how this translates into the exercise of political power. The “wingers” who descended on Washington D.C. like a biblical plague of locusts beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 have systematically sabotaged the liberal state. By placing those hostile to the project of the liberal state in key positions e.g. lumbermen at the head of the Forestry Service, anti-union zealots at the Department of Labor etc. the wingers have been wildly successful at capturing the state and using it to destroy the loathsome liberalism that has been the source of their “oppression.” The conservative formula for victory is to scatter liberal constituencies hallow out the state, and reward your cronies with the loot.
Following in the tradition of Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Frank documents the “defunding of the left” which he characterizes as “the north star of the conservative project.” It is the story of corrupting lobbyists like Jack Abramoff and right-wing operatives such as Grover Norquist and how they preyed upon the suicidal tendency of liberalism to depend on the fair play of its sworn enemies. Throughout the narrative the leit motif of the interests of business are central and defining to the wingers' cause. All the while the saboteurs, relentlessly advancing a pro business political agenda, adroitly shield themselves with the mantle of libertarianism portraying themselves as merely seeking human freedom. In this respect they took a cue from Milton Friedman who advanced the cause of the freedom sweatshops by repeatedly quoting Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell.
This book is very much the case of “it takes one to know one.” If one views Frank's August 8th interview on Democracy Now he candidly admits to once being a college Republican before his defection. By reading this useful book one develops a greater understanding of how we arrived at the point where we are today in the Bush era where we now have a “market based government.” It remains an open question whether the American liberal state was merely “a forty-year suspension of the market's reign” or not.
Friday, September 12, 2008
From Flames to Samarra
Sedaris, David. When you Are Engulfed in Flames. NY; Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 2008
O'Hara, John. Appointment in Samarra. NY: Random House, 1938.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
What do these two books have in common? Not too much--except that I am in the middle of reading them both. If you are familiar with Sedaris, you will recognize the tone of his latest book--focussing more on Hugh though than the rest of his family. I think Sedaris is at his best when when you are listening to him read, but this is enjoyable reading nonetheless. Painful as his childhood might have been for him, he now lives in Paris and can charge a significant chunk of money for his readings ... so he is doing all right.
Not so much can be said for the characters in O'Hara's brief novel, Appointment in Samarra. It is set in the midst of the depression, social, ethnic, and racial bigotry, unhappy marriages, drinking problems ... but this is a taste of Americana--Pennsylvania Americana. Just as you are starting to get into the story O'Hara introduces a new character and gives you that characters complete background. You get a good feel for the town of Gibbsville and the members of the Lantenengo Country Club. Although this is a tragic novel, it has its humorous moments and I love it when Al Grecco says that Ed, the local mobster and king pin, is the only thing happening from Reading to Wilkes-Barre.
O'Hara Burling 3rd Floor PS3529.H29 A6x
Sedaris Burling, Smith Memorial PS3569.E314 W48 2008
O'Hara, John. Appointment in Samarra. NY: Random House, 1938.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
What do these two books have in common? Not too much--except that I am in the middle of reading them both. If you are familiar with Sedaris, you will recognize the tone of his latest book--focussing more on Hugh though than the rest of his family. I think Sedaris is at his best when when you are listening to him read, but this is enjoyable reading nonetheless. Painful as his childhood might have been for him, he now lives in Paris and can charge a significant chunk of money for his readings ... so he is doing all right.
Not so much can be said for the characters in O'Hara's brief novel, Appointment in Samarra. It is set in the midst of the depression, social, ethnic, and racial bigotry, unhappy marriages, drinking problems ... but this is a taste of Americana--Pennsylvania Americana. Just as you are starting to get into the story O'Hara introduces a new character and gives you that characters complete background. You get a good feel for the town of Gibbsville and the members of the Lantenengo Country Club. Although this is a tragic novel, it has its humorous moments and I love it when Al Grecco says that Ed, the local mobster and king pin, is the only thing happening from Reading to Wilkes-Barre.
O'Hara Burling 3rd Floor PS3529.H29 A6x
Sedaris Burling, Smith Memorial PS3569.E314 W48 2008
Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920
Van Slyk, Abigail A. Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Van Slyk, an architectural historian, focuses on the design decisions to look at the history of public libraries in the United States, specifically the building of Carnegie libraries. Her history is a social history in which the wealthy classes struggle with their desire to build and maintain an institution that served as a place for the elite to engage with and satisfy their cultural tastes. Central libraries were built in center cities as palaces to learning and the arts. Van Slyk notes that spaces that were more attractive to the working classes, newspaper and magazine rooms as well as rooms serving children, were often regulated to basements or ground floors accessible through altnerative entrances. The genteel reader could then use the more elegant spaces without crossing paths with the lower or noisy ranks of society.
Van Slyk looks at floor plans, building designs and furniture to demonstrate the 19th and early 20th century library planners' desire to regulate the behavior of library users. The branch library system developed out of the need to better serve communities and those in the middle and lower classes. In fact, Carnegie's foundation stopped funding central libraries and concentrated on branch buildings.
In her conclusion, Van Slyk writes that the Carnegie building program “helped perpetuate and reinforce a relatively narrow definition of the public library’s function in American society” doing away with an earlier model of the library as a multipurpose cultural institution (art gallery, museum, and book collection) to define library services as the quick delivery of books into the hands of individual readers and “supported larger cultural trends that encouraged libraries to ignore the issue of how readers used the materials that they did borrow" (p. 219).
She looks back on the 19th century social libraries that predated the free library movement, and which were “established specifically to facilitate an active sharing of idea. . . . The efficiency driven public library of the twentieth century defined reading as a solitary activity. In the process, the library lost its potential to serve as a site—literally and figuratively—for public discussion and debate.”
Something we are still living with, but perhaps gradually moving away from.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Van Slyk, an architectural historian, focuses on the design decisions to look at the history of public libraries in the United States, specifically the building of Carnegie libraries. Her history is a social history in which the wealthy classes struggle with their desire to build and maintain an institution that served as a place for the elite to engage with and satisfy their cultural tastes. Central libraries were built in center cities as palaces to learning and the arts. Van Slyk notes that spaces that were more attractive to the working classes, newspaper and magazine rooms as well as rooms serving children, were often regulated to basements or ground floors accessible through altnerative entrances. The genteel reader could then use the more elegant spaces without crossing paths with the lower or noisy ranks of society.
Van Slyk looks at floor plans, building designs and furniture to demonstrate the 19th and early 20th century library planners' desire to regulate the behavior of library users. The branch library system developed out of the need to better serve communities and those in the middle and lower classes. In fact, Carnegie's foundation stopped funding central libraries and concentrated on branch buildings.
In her conclusion, Van Slyk writes that the Carnegie building program “helped perpetuate and reinforce a relatively narrow definition of the public library’s function in American society” doing away with an earlier model of the library as a multipurpose cultural institution (art gallery, museum, and book collection) to define library services as the quick delivery of books into the hands of individual readers and “supported larger cultural trends that encouraged libraries to ignore the issue of how readers used the materials that they did borrow" (p. 219).
She looks back on the 19th century social libraries that predated the free library movement, and which were “established specifically to facilitate an active sharing of idea. . . . The efficiency driven public library of the twentieth century defined reading as a solitary activity. In the process, the library lost its potential to serve as a site—literally and figuratively—for public discussion and debate.”
Something we are still living with, but perhaps gradually moving away from.
The Size of the World
Silber, Joan. The Size of the World. NY: W.W. Norton, 2008.
submitted by R. Stuhr
Silber has written a handful of chapters that can stand on their own as short stories or novellas, but they are linked across time, place, and generations through American characters who have lived in and been changed by their experiences in Thailand and Mexico. This is a beautifully written book with interesting and complex characters.
On order for Burling Library.
submitted by R. Stuhr
Silber has written a handful of chapters that can stand on their own as short stories or novellas, but they are linked across time, place, and generations through American characters who have lived in and been changed by their experiences in Thailand and Mexico. This is a beautifully written book with interesting and complex characters.
On order for Burling Library.
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