It's been a long time since my last installment of "you know you live in a university town when...."
I was over in Pittsboro a while back and picked up a copy of The Great Republic at their library book sale. Somewhere along the line, in one of my many moves since leaving Boston in 1994, I lost my copy of it, so I was happy to get a hardback copy, a little older than the one I'd owned when I was in graduate school, but an outstanding reference nevertheless. This is the 1977 edition, which has some really fabulous color plates--it was produced back in the day when color photos were still affordable. It looks like an art book.
Now here's the "you know this came from an academic's bookshelf" part. The notes in the margins argue with the authors. For instance, the book has a line about "What made public schools and religious revivals seem so indispensable by the 1830s was the earlier decay of traditional communal discipline." And in the margin: "What exactly constitutes 'traditional communal discipline'?" (note the presence of quotation marks in the margin!)
Then on the section on radical abolitionism are these two notes, several pages apart. First, next to discussion of Garrison's near lynching by a Boston mob in 1835 and his increasing reform efforts, is this note: "after a meeting of the Boston female anti-slavery society." And a few pages later, in the margin is this question: "Is THAT ALL he's going to say about women's rights?"
Then, in another hand, next to a discussion of proslavery action at northern universities, "What about Francis Wayland?" And "what happened to Edward Loring?" But perhaps it should read, "does anyone think that Justice or God awaits Mr. Loring's decision?"
So you pick it. You know you live in a university town when (1) there are marginal notes in the books you buy at the library sale? or (2) the notes argue with the authors about technical points of scholarship?
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