description of the development of public libraries in the United
States. Donald G. Davis Jr. and John Mark Tucker's American
Library History: A Comprehensive_Guide to the Literature was
indeed comprehensive and useful. An older work by John Alvin
Colson, The Writing of American Library History, 1876 - 1976 was
valuable especially for highlighting the arguments in the
"debate" about the origin, purpose, and development of the public
11brary and the motivation of those early promoters of this
institution. This "debate" makes for fascinating reading and is still an influential part of public library historiography. Much
has been written and careers have been made in evaluating the
evidence concerning the purpose of the American public library.
Michael H. Harris in his groundbreaking work The_Purpose of the
American Public Library in Historical Perspective: A Revisionist
Interpretation found evidence that the Boston Public Library was
"established by a small group of wealthy authoritarians and
elitists who wanted a means to control the beliefs and actions of
the growing lower classes, especially immigrants, to maintain the existing social, political, and economic status quo. Furthermore
it was argued that the librarians who were selected to run these
new public libraries, while paying lip service to providing
educational programs for the masses, actually bought into the