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One thing I learned from this fascinating book is the centrality to the history of American public libraries of fights over fiction. How did (and do) librarians mediate between public taste and the imperatives of culture and of morality?
In this book’s recounting, the pressure on libraries in the 19th century came largely from social and economic elites who deplored middle- and lowbrow tastes. Fiction? Dickens and Walter Scott only!
Compare today, when the censorship pressures we hear the most about come from religious groups who snarl at YA LGBTQIA+ fiction and Drag Queen Story Hour.
This is a book worth reading if you’re interested in a long view of how librarians have acted to mediate these conflicts—and of how much the mission of public libraries has changed, from “useful knowledge” to “the best reading” to “Every reader her book”
I read about this contretemps in the book. Who knew?
