Elephant in the Room: Part XI

Over the last few months, I have been telling you a lot about the story of accomplishment that is the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It is the beginning of the White Man’s explosive westward expansion in America, for better and for worse. Worse for Native Americans. In part, this was my way of putting a focus on some wonderful books in the Westmoreland Library Network’s county-wide collection; in part it was to further make Thomas Jefferson’s (and America’s) own case in a Library (learning) context: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” It was the time of Jefferson and his incredible mind, exemplified by probably the most inclusive Library in the country at the time, his personal Library: his particular impac…