The Potteroid controversy and Ameraican Exceptionalism
Dates: 12/22/00,3:25 PM through 12/22/00,3:25 PM (1 posting)
Return to December 2000 thread menu | Fiction_L Archives Menu
|
Fiction_L Archives
The Potteroid controversy and Ameraican Exceptionalism
Return to December 2000 thread menu | Fiction_L Archives Menu |
|
FROM: "Bill Crowley" <[removed]@email.dom.edu>
REC'D: 12/22/00, 3:25 PM
I am a native New Yorker (born Brooklyn) who lived in NYC until he was
26. It wasn't the best introduction to American life since I had to learn the
hard way that East Coast bluster is simply not acceptable to those who have
grown up with "midwestern nice" or "southern manners." Years ago, while I
was working with the Alabama Public Library Service, I can recall an elderly
trustee taking me aside for a short lesson on how to "disagree without being
disagreeable." [Unfortunately, too often I lapse and forget her sage advice.]
Canadians usually do not have to be reminded about what makes America
tick. I still remember the first time a Canadian librarian shared with me a
variant of the phrase "When the United States sneezes, Canada gets
pneumonia." [This can be taken a bit far. This semester, for example, a
student in my Public Library Administration class traveled north to study a
Canadian library and found that the board had been taken over by people of
faith who wanted to apply their own faith understandings to providing public
library service!]
However, Europeans and (perhaps) residents of both the East and West
coasts who have lost touch with the heartland, might want to read one or both
of the following works by Seymour Martin Lipset, a political scientist and
sociologist who has spent his professional life studying why the residents of the
United States of America tend to be more religious, more self-righteous, more
patriotic, and more of a lot of other things than residents of all other major
industrialized nations.
American exceptionalism : a double-edged sword / Seymour Martin Lipset.
Authors etc. {HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Lipset+Seymour+Martin:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}Lipset, Seymour Martin.
Publisher New York : W.W. Norton, 1996.
Continental divide.
Authors etc. {HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Lipset+Seymour+M:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}Lipset, Seymour M.
Publisher Routledge 1990
The well-respected scholar Martin Marty has also written a lot in this area, his
latest being
Education, religion, and the common good : advancing a distinctly American
conversation about religion's role in our shared life / Martin E. Marty with
Jonathan Moore.
Authors etc. {HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Marty+Martin+E:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}Marty, Martin E., 1928-
{HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Moore+Jonathan:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}Moore, Jonathan, 1970-
Edition 1st ed. Publisher San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, c2000.
In almost all of my courses I deal with the reality that people who protest the
actions of a public library or school library media center are making two
demands.
1. Give me what I want ("take that book off the shelf, filter that terminal,"
etc.) and
2. I am a local taxpayer, concerned parent, etc. ("You represent my
government and I want you to treat me with respect.")
Many residents of any American community have no real interest in how
public libraries or school library media centers respond to demand number 1.
But they have a real concern with with how government units - and public
libraries and public school media centers are generally part of government -
respond to demand number 2. Even the unconcerned can see themselves
maltreated by government and being Americans, they don't like it.
There are times when we have to say no to demand number 1. But we had
better provide respect. As Lipset points out, America is the "County of the
Revolution" and didn't Jefferson suggest a revolution every 20 years or so?
(Of course, one can always quote Jefferson against himself.)
I am writing this response about 10 miles from downtown Chicago and
"midwest nice" does have a real appeal. Of course, when I add "southern
manners" and call a student "sir" or "mam" it does tend to freek her or him out
just a little bit.
My best for the holiday season for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and secular
humanists. (OK, atheists and agnostics, too.)
Bill
From: "Fran Tracey" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Subject: RE: The Potteroid controversy
Date sent: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 12:26:58 -0000
Send reply to: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
{HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Lipset+Seymour+Martin:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}
{HYPERLINK "/WebZ/QUERY:sessionid=01-36177-1852992654?termsrch-au%3A=Lipset+Seymour+M:next=html/vicnfresults.html:bad=error/vicbadsearch.html:entitytoprecno=1:entitycurrecno=1:numrecs=10:"}
> I'm finding this thread fascinating. I'm a librarian in the UK and
> although I'm not responsible for children's books (so may be out of
> touch) I'm just not aware of the Harry Potter books creating such a
> storm over here. I am a bit horrified at the thought of schools
> (libraries?) banning books, I am suspicious of censorship and any
> attempt to restrict freedom of thought and beliefs, whatever those
> beliefs are. I'm especially astonished about this occurring in the
> US, don't you have a constitution that protects freedom of speech
> etc?? Hope this doesn't offend, I'm just intrigued.
>
> Happy Christmas to one and all - from a 'practising' humanist!
>
> Fran Tracey
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ___ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
> http://www.hotmail.com.
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives? Everything
> Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
Bill Crowley, Associate Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Dominican University
7900 West Division Street
River Forest, Illinois 60305
[removed]@email.dom.edu
708.524.6513
FAX: 708.524.6657
Return to December 2000 thread menu | Fiction_L Archives Menu
|
The Webrary® and Fiction_L are services of the Morton Grove Public Library
"Webrary" is a registered trademark of the Morton Grove Public Library. All rights reserved.
|