"The Humanitarian Idea" by Sidney Ditzion

There were a few sentences and points which stood out to me while reading this article. I thought that the sentence about how for the poor the “books presented the livelier scenes of a brighter world” was completely true. At some level, I identify with that statement when remembering my experiences at the library. I come from a home where my parents have never attended college, so growing up my parents made sure that the library was one of the first destinations for us after school or during the summers. I think both of them realized how transforming this “presentation” of a livelier world could be for children. I will always recognize that for me and I think the author has it right, too, that to some extent books will always have an escapist appeal to the masses, no matter what the times around them. This realization is just as valid as during the industrial revolution in America as in the post-industrial world of today.

I also underlined for myself some words about the connection of the temperance movement and that of the public library movement. That one could be the solution for the other in the temperance workers’ minds must have seemed like the silver bullet. This reminds me that people today still talk about education as the silver bullet for the advancement or betterment of the masses. One some level I agree with those today and before (temperance workers) that education and libraries will to some extent change people’s lives in significant ways. It has done so for me. On the other hand, did spending some part of every childhood day kill my interest in liquor? No! I was simply a more rounded and confident individual when I encountered alcohol situations as an adolescent. I wish to say that simply throwing an institution at someone will not stifle all the base yearnings that we have as human beings, and libraries should not claim to do so.

I had never thought, however, so explicitly about white men supporting libraries as those who did so because of some "social upheaval from below." At first I thought that sentence really framed the motivations of some men for me very well, but after reading some other articles I know I should be more cautious about ascribing motivations to men without primary source evidence.