I don’t have much of an ass, so sitting on molded hard plastic chairs for hours at a time isn’t fun. Sadly, that’s what I have to do in the archive. At least the Hoover had soft chairs, even if it was like being in kindergarten from time to time….
In between all this fun, I’ve been getting some good work in at the State Archives. I love living 15 minutes from work. It’s a quick commute in the morning. I come home for lunch and Skype with Carly for a half hour or so and then head back for the afternoon. I do miss listening to NPR on the way to work, though. Last Fall, when I was teaching US II, my students would ask about the economic meltdown and I’d happily recount what I learned the morning on NPR. (Yes, I’m a socialist, fascist, communist, death paneler, MSNBC watching, Obama voting, (now) expatriate.)
Anyway, the work has been slow going. Whoever indexed the Commission for Relief in Belgium files (starting in 1927 and finished in 2000) could had done better than just listing, “various correspondence” and the like in the index. So, I have to leaf through each file and folder because occasionally I will find a gem of a document.
Like today, I was going through another folder (I’ve moved on from only discussions about corn imports) and came across a few serial letters about the Belgian National Committee wanting to get permission from the German government to set up libraries in the Flemish and Walloon regions of Belgium. They were denied as the libraries were not directly related to aid and food relief. Since part of my dissertation is looking at what is “normal” before and during a war in terms of humanitarian relief, this was fascinating to me. Was this an extravagance? The Belgians said, no. In times of idleness and unemployment, libraries are a place for people to do go busy themselves. This was a concern of both the US, the Belgians, and the Germans. Especially the Germans. They would deport people for idleness….but the libraries, at least as far as I know so far, were a no go.
Now, this does not a dissertation make, but it’s interesting color and shows the breath of work the Belgian National Committee undertook. The Belgians wrote to the US minister, Brand Whitlock, for assistance, too!
The core of my project is the experience of the Americans who worked here, but I’m finding more and more that their world was not just “their” world, but a world that incorporated a lot of off beat things to make life livable (not just sustainable) for the Belgian people and that’s a deeper question I hope to explore in this project: what world does a humanitarian mission create and what are the power relationships created? I don’t know yet. Ask me in a year or so.
Anyway for my dissertation committee (if you’re reading this): the work goes slowly, but steadily.
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I love hearing about the little nuggets you find that shed light onto a particular issue. It's interesting, as you said, what was considered a necessity, and by whom. In a time of war, I can understand why libraries might be considered unnecessary, as they don't directly keep people alive, but at the same time, the idealist in me wants to think that people should have access to learning no matter what the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, as for NPR - I think you download This American Life on podcasts to your ipod, if you're so inclined. I'm sure other NPR programs are available too.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Podcast.aspx