The Post-Fordist Public Library: From Carnegie to Gates

This comparison of Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates investigates how both philanthropists shaped America's public libraries in a direction consistent with the class interests of capital in their respective regimes. The analysis unfolds using the Regulation School's perspective on the parallel concepts of Fordism and post-Fordism as a means of theorizing monumental social change. As such, Carnegie's and Gates' philanthropies are read against capitalism's evolution as a historically continuous system of social and economic integration. Given that the purpose of Regulation School analysis is not just to stress the ever-changing capacities of capital for reinvention, but also to facilitate the articulation of alternative models for social and economic organization, an alternative prescription for the public library within post-Fordism is proposed.