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Books and the Founding Fathers: a Lecture to Commemorate the Year of the Reader, Delivered on November 1, 1987

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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 320 111 CS 010 105 AUTHOR Nash, George H. TITLE Books and the Founding Fathers: A Lecture To Commemorate the Year of the Reader, Delivered on November 1, 1987. The Center for the Book Viewpoint Series No. 23. INSTITUTION Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Center for the Book. SPONS AGENCY Daniel J. and Ruth F. Boorstin Publications Fund.; National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Washington, D. C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-8444-0641-4 PUB DATE 89 NOTE 26p. PUB TYPE Viewpoints (120) -- Historical Materials (060) -- Speeches /Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Intellectual Experience; *Library Acquisition; Library Role; Reading Attitudes; *Reading Habits; *Reading Interests; *United States History IDENTIFIERS Adams (John); Eighteenth Century; *Founding Fathers of the United States; Jefferson (Thomas) ABSTRACT The great majority of the Founding Fathers were readers. In fact, the leading political figures of late eighteenth-century America were generally, and often intimately, acquainted with the output of the greatest European minds of the day--and of the minds of the ancient western world. Two factors above all placed an ineffaceable stamp on the reading habits of the American revolutionaricc (1) the prevailing mode of their education was rigorous, classical, and thoroughly book-oriented; and (2) the political and social upheaval of which they were the architects and beneficiaries caused them to consult the experience of the past to make sense of their current tribulations and to guide them in their epic task of nation- b'iilding. Johr Idams and Thomas Jefferson, two of the most intellectual lf the Founding Fathers, took extraordinary pains to create not just serviceable personal libraries but collections of superlative quality. Most noteworthy about the Founding Fathers' reading habits was their tendency to regard books not as ornaments but as tools. The Founding Fathers were readers, collectors, users, anc' creators of books. A few of them went further and became founders of institutional libraries. Through books, they sought both knowledge and self-knowledge, the means by which better to live. (RS) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made - * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** la. BEST COPY AVAILABLE "PERMIStNe I TO REPRODUCE THIS U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION V) MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY Office of Educational Research and Improvement HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFOLMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 This document has been reproduced as received from the person or otginaation ongmahngrt t C Minor changes have been made to Improve reproduction ciuMity TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ment do not necessarily represent 0111051 OERI position or policy ItI I err Cr) 1 ti 0,4024144!:',ti 4/ 7 , '.,o.' ,,,,,,1,eI Si.,_4 .J.'ml' '414,. , I, l',..44141;Z:44... P"it,: ,,. ..1, J ,, "At %ilk " w "I cannot live without books..'." to John Adams, 1815 4 13ooks and the goundinggathers GEORGE H. NASH a lecture to commemorate the Year of the Reader, delivered on November 1, 1987 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON 1989 5 THE CENTER FOR THE BOOK VIEWPOINT SERIES NO. 23 A publication of the Center for the Book supported in part by funds from the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and the Daniel J. and Ruth F. Boorstin Publications Fund Libras of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nash, George H., 1945 Books and the founding fathers. (The Center for the Book viewpoint series ; no. 23) "A lecture to commemorate the Year of the reader, delivered on November 1, 1987." 1. Books and readingUnited StatesHistory 18th centur}. 2. Libraries, PrivateUnited States History-17th-18th centuries. 3. United States Intellectual life-18th century. 4. Presidents United StatesBooks and reading. 5. Statesmen United StatesBooks and reading. I. Center for the Book.II. Title. III. Series: Center for the Book viewpoint series ; 23. Z1003. 2. N37 19880281.9'0973 89-600064 ISBN 0-8444-0641-4 0 The paper used in this pubilLation meets the requirements for permanence established by the American National Standard for Information Sciences "Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials," ANSI Z39.48 -1984 gomword Books, libraries, and the life of the mind are vital American trad;tions. This fact is easy to forget in our "information age," which is dominated b} technology, a sense of urgency, andan underlying assumption that what is new is goodand thus im- portant. The tradition of books, reading, and libraries is more contemplative but just as important to our countryas the exciting technological developments that also are part of our history. As George H. Nash demonstrates in this essay, books and reading were essential ingredients in the founding of the United States. Today thoughtful, well-informed citizens are still essential toour democratic way of life, and books, reaC;ng, and librariesare still the keys. But our nation and the won 'of books face serious challenges: namely, illiteracy, the inability to read, and aliteracy, the reluctance to read even when one knows how. We must work together to renew the tradition of America as a "Nation of Readers." The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public awareness and apprecia- tion of books, reading, and libraries. A small office that depends on others to carry out its ideas, the center has seen its catalytic function expand cl.-aroatically within the past few years with the establishment of atT.- ted centers for the book in seventeen states or regions of th_sited States. The symposia, lectures, projects, and publications of the Center for the Book and its affiliates are 5 7 supported primarily by private contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Projects are also cosponsored with U.S. government agencies, and in this instance the Center for the Book gratefully acknowledges support from the U.S. Na- tional Commission on Libraries and Information Science. A professional historian and lecturer, George H. Nash is also one of the presidentially appointed commiccioners of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Sci- ence. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in history, Dr. Nash has been en- gaged since 1975 in preparing a multivolume, scholari, biogra- phy of Herbert Hoover. The first volume, The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Engineer, 1874-19 4, was published by W.W. Nor- ton in 1983 and the second, The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian, 1914 -1917, in 1988, both have been well re- ceived. In addition to the life of Herbert Hoover, Dr. Nash's areas of specialization are American conservatism and twentit century American political and intellectual history. The Center for the Book's reading promotion theme in 1987 was "The Year of the Reader," and a public law, a presiden- tial proclamation, and executive orders or proclamations from the governors of twelve states made the celebration truly national. George Nash's lecture, "Books and the Founding Fathers," was presented in commemoration of the Year of the Reader and the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution on November I, 1987, under the auspices of the National Society of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution. It is a pleasure to present it to a wide audience. JOHN Y. COLE Director The Center for the Book 6 8 t is a happy coincidence that this year of the Bicentennial of the Constitution is also--by official edictthe Year of the Reader. In so designating it some months ago, the Congress of the United States declared that America is "built on ideas Iexpressed through books and the printed word." In his en- suing proclamation of the Year of the Reader, President Reagan observed that "our history demonstrates that literacy and realpo- litical freedom go hand in hand. " "Our Nation's heritage of liberty and self-government," he added, "depends ona literat,, informed citizenry." In the past eleven years, as Americans have celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of our independence and of the Con- stitution that secured it, we have been treated to a veritable feast of books and articles assessing the achievement of themen who comprised the re olutionary generation. Just this year more than a dozen scholarly volumes have been publishednarrating, in- terpreting, and documenting the process by which the Founding Fathers and their contemporaries created a regime of government unique in all history. In my lecture today I shall not tread directly on this now familiar ground. Instead, I propose to explore a theme that has received comparatively less attention. In this Year of the Reader, I wish to examine some of the ways that the written wordspecifically, books and librariesmolded the remarkable elite that made and preserved our revolution. 7 The first observation that comes forcibly to mind as we be- gin our inquiry is that the great majority of the Founding Fa- thers* were, in fact, readers. Surveying the records of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1787 and of thestateratifying conventions that followed and examining the political/philosoph- ical tracts prod) i:ed by Federalists and Anti-Federalists alike, one is struck repeatedly b} the debaters' invocation of history, partic- ularly that of ancient Rome and post-Elizabethan Britain. With seeming ease and olniuus confidence that their audiences would understand them, they referred to past episodes and personages, thereby exhibiting a form of knowledge derived, in the last anal- ysis, from books. This impression is reinforced by perusal of the political pamphlet literature that flourished in astonishing pro- fusion in America between 1763 and the 1790spamphlets often replete with Latin quotations as well as references to ancient and modern authors.
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