A comprehensive introduction provides an overview of public library history prior to World War I, touching on such topics as the growth of the public library from the genteel, early nineteenth-century social libraries of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states and the founding of the American Library Association in 1876.

Includes index.

The public library in neutral America, 1914-17 -- In service to the state: exercising local initiative 1917-18 -- In service to the state: following national direction, 1917-18 -- Mobilizing kitchen soldiers: the public library and food conservation -- Discarding disloyal literature: public library censorship during wartime -- Educating the immigrant: the Americanization movement and the public library, 1917-18.