As a regular reader of nonfiction, I can distinguish between those writers who are like me, and the ones who are like Pettegree and der Weduwen, the authors of The Library: A Fragile History. The ones who are like me (hold on, I’m going to flatter myself just a tad) are generally very interested in their subject, and capable of researching that subject. Their budgets, time, and resources may be limited, but their earnest love for the subject is evident in every word. The ones that are like Pettegree and der Weduwen are capital-S Scholars (maybe even all-caps SCHOLARS). They have dedicated their lives to the subject. They are less concerned with wanting people to stop them on the street and say, “Gee whiz! Isn’t that Pettegree and der Weduwen, them fellers who wrote that cracking book about libraries?” (Don’t ask me why the reader talks like that, but he does) and are more interested in detailing a long, complex history in a readable way.
A long nonfiction book about libraries? You may ask whether the pop-history writers aren’t writing that book because they know that the general public doesn’t want a history of libraries. Leave it to the Scholars/SCHOLARS to take that on.
And I will concede that the subject might not grab the casual reader. The book, which begins with the earliest libraries, including the fabled library in Alexandria, to modern day community hubs, which may host more computers than physical books, could be classified as a reference manual as much as general interest. One clue: it’s got nearly a hundred pages worth of notes. For the sake of comparison, Dikotter’s The Tragedy of Liberation, about the early days of the Chinese revolution, has about seventy-five.
Yet if you love libraries as much as I do (The books are free! The librarians are generous and kind! It’s a comfortable, climate-controlled place where unhoused people are not summarily kicked out!) then you will read The Library: A Fragile History in a matter of weeks, possibly days. If you are interested in scholarly research and someday wonder if you might write an attention-grabbing essay for an online magazine (possible prompt: “I Thought I Hated Libraries, Until…”) then your copy of Pettegree and der Weduwen’s book can sit handsomely on your reference shelf and wait for its time. Maybe not featured on Good Morning America, but, like libraries themselves, occupying an important, introverted position amongst the chatty nonfiction works on either side of it.
Basic Books (2021)