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Show BOOK REVIEWS Books, Bluster, and Bounty: Local Politics and Intermountain West Carnegie Library Building Grants, 1898–1920. By Susan H. Swetnam. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2012. xi + 251 pp. Cloth, $27.95.) BOOKS, BLUSTER, AND BOUNTY is a sleeper hit. Although its subtitle presents what might seem a dry and narrow subject, Susan Swetnam persuasively argues that the process of applying for Carnegie Library building grants—a process that was often contentious and not always successful—reveals a good deal about the Intermountain West and offers potential lessons for today. Swetnam began the project with some basic questions: Why did ordinary citizens advocate for libraries? Who were those citizens? And “can those of us who value books and reading today learn anything from them that we can use” (225)? The supporting documentation that Swetnam mined from the Carnegie correspondence at Columbia University tells us how towns applying for a share of the industrialist’s fortune viewed themselves, their demography, their economies, and their (often inflated) hopes. Swetnam unearthed a wealth of detail, especially about populations, expectations for growth, and the ability of towns to shoulder a considerable share of costs. Here, for those towns, began the problems and the “bluster.” These places were new: many of the seventy-eight communities that applied for a grant had not existed when the previous census was taken and thus had no verifiable figures to report. Despite the rigorous application process, seventy-one towns in the Intermountain West succeeded in building a library, a success rate slightly higher than that of the nation as a whole. That success reflected the hard work and commitment of town leaders, including mothers and women’s clubs. Swetnam divides the “Carnegie towns” into categories reflective of their populations and primary arguments. Twenty-four Utah towns applied, more than any other state in the region, and most were Mormon-dominated villages. While towns like Ephraim, Parowan, and Richmond were hardly economic powerhouses, they did have stable populations and committed leaders (virtually all of whom were Mormon men) and experienced little strife over site selection. Their applications emphasized how libraries could enrich education while helping keep vice at bay. Not all Intermountain West towns fit the above category, of course. Some were “boom towns” that sprang up or grew dramatically because of developments like irrigation projects, mineral strikes, or railroad connections. Utah towns in this category included Beaver City, which experienced a gold strike, and Garland, with its Utah-Idaho Sugar Company mill. Such towns tended to employ boosterish rhetoric and to emphasize the literal profits that a library might help bring. Other towns, including Springville 290 |
