Librarian Warriors and Rapprochement: Carl Milam, Archibald MacLeish, and World War II

Despite the American Library Association's virulent opposition, the US Senate easily affirmed Franklin Roosevelt's choice of Archibald MacLeish to replace Herbert Putnam as Librarian of Congress. ALA then needed to reach an accommodation with MacLeish - a need heightened by the coming World War II. Based heavily on archival and other primary sources, the study suggests that the antifascism of ALA executive director Carl Milam, himself a nominee for the LC position, was instrumental in reaching a rapprochement. In addition to reporting on the hawkish nature of American librarianship in late 1930s, this article also revises earlier historiographic emphasis on ALA in World War II. Instead, it stresses the centrality of LC and MacLeish, especially in regard to the creation of a federal library establishment and the largely explored linkage between the births of information science and American military intelligence.