Each year, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars generously pays for the library to purchase approximately £3000 worth of books in memory of Frank Aydelotte (first American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships), Paul Kieffer (President of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, 1957-1969), and Courtney Smith (second American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships) in order to develop the breadth and depth of the VHL Collections.
The collection for 2025/2026 is now available and can be found on the ground floor of the Vere Harmsworth Library, next to the Alain Locke Collection. All books in the AKS Collection are loanable.
Selections from previous years are shelved as part of the main collection. The books currently on display separately can be identified by the ‘AKS’ shelfmark prefix.
A list of the latest AKS books can be found on SOLO by performing an advanced search for shelfmarks containing ‘AKS’, limiting the scope to the Vere Harmsworth Library.
We are grateful as ever to the Association of American Rhodes Scholars for funding these purchases and for their ongoing support of the library.
If you have any further questions about the AKS Collection, or the display, please contact Bethan Davies. If you have any further questions about working in the Vere Harmsworth Library, please email vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
This month, we have chosen a slightly different theme for our book display. Library staff have selected a range of titles from our collection which tie in to some of the events being held at the Rothermere American Institute (RAI) this month.
Firstly, Peter Feaver, who was a member of the National Security Council during the Clinton and Bush administrations and is now a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, will be giving a talk on Trump 2.0 and America’s Role in the World on 15th October. In it he will discuss how the new policy directions of Trump’s grand strategy have changed the domestic politics of national security and assess how the second Trump administration has remade America’s role in the world.
Next, the RAI will be hosting a book event on 17th October with Andrew O’Shaughnessy, one of the authors of Republic and empire: crisis, revolution, and America’s early independence. In this new book, by looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—O’Shaughnessy and his co-author Trevor Burnard go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.
The final event highlighted here is another book event, this one with Tom Arnold-Forster, to discuss his book Walter Lippmann : an intellectual biography. Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) was among the most influential and wide-ranging political writers in modern America. As both a journalist and political theorist, he shaped ideas about liberalism and democracy, the nature of public opinion, US power and empire, and the roles of journalists, experts, and citizens. Tom Arnold-Forster provides a bold historical reassessment of Lippmann’s intellectual life, offering fresh perspectives on a career at the intersection of daily news and democratic theory.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
To find out more about using the Vere Harmsworth Library collections please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).
Please be aware of the following updates as we move into the Long Vacation.
Opening Hours
From Monday 23rd June 2025, the Vere Harmsworth Library and the RAI Building will have the following opening hours:
Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday CLOSED
Term-time opening hours will resume on Monday 6th October 2025.
Please check the VHL website for updates and upcoming closure periods.
Vacation Loans
Vacation loans are now in place across the Bodleian Libraries. Books checked out will not need to be returned until Tuesday 14th October. You may return your book before that time if you wish.
Please note that this does not apply to self-collect books, which will need to renewed every seven days as normal.
Leaving Oxford
If your time in Oxford is coming to an end this summer, please do remember to return any books on loan to you before you leave.
More information about things to remember and resources available to you if you are finishing your degree can be found on the Bodleian website.
Happy Pride Month to all our readers! Our latest book display brings together titles from the Vere Harmsworth’s collection which explore diverse aspects of LGBTQ+ history.
We also encourage those interested to explore the online resources highlighted in our display. Firstly, the Library of Congress’ LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive brings together a collection of online content which documents LGBTQ+ history, scholarship, and culture in the US and around the world, along with curated resources on subjects such as the history of Pride, Stonewall, and how to find LGBTQ+ history in newspapers. Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part II is a database from Gale Primary Sources (access requires an SSO or to be logged into a Bodleian PC) which covers the development, culture, and society of LGBTQ groups in the latter half of the twentieth century. Finally, the LGBTQIA+ Archives are a free, searchable digital archive of LGBTQIA+ historical resources, and also provide links to a very wide range of other websites, archives and projects.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
To find out more about using the Vere Harmsworth Library collections please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).
Following the news of the appointment of the first American pope, the Vere Harmsworth Library has selected a number of books on the theme of Catholicism in the United States for our latest book display.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
To find out more about using the Vere Harmsworth Library collections please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).
Our latest book display focuses on space flight, an area of our collection which many readers may not have explored, but which has a prominent place in 20th century US history.
On 12th April, the International Day of Human Space Flight marks the anniversary of the first human space flight in 1961 by Yuri Gargarin. This was a key moment in the Space Race, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop their space flight technologies amidst the tensions of the Cold War. The Soviet Union were the first to hit many of the milestones in this race, including the first human space flight as mentioned, but the US programme was the first to successfully land humans on the moon.
As well as books within the Vere Harmsworth Library’s collection, the display highlights online resources that may be of interest. One great place to start is the history pages on NASA’s website, where a wide range of reports, articles, primary documents, bibliographies, timelines, biographies and more can be found. For those interested in the early stages of the Space Race, the Library of Congress’s research guide, Sputnik and the Space Race : 1957 and beyond links to some well-selected articles and online collections of primary source documents.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
Please be aware of the following updates as we move into the Easter Vacation.
Opening Hours
From Monday 17th March 2025, the Vere Harmsworth Library and the RAI Building will have the following opening hours:
Monday – Friday 9am – 7pm
Saturday – Sunday CLOSED
The Library will be closed on the bank holidays Friday 18th April and Monday 21st April. Normal term-time opening hours will resume on Tuesday 22nd April 2025.
Please check the VHL website for updates and upcoming closure periods.
Vacation Loans
Vacation loans are now in place across the Bodleian Libraries. Books checked out will not need to be returned until Tuesday 29th April. You may return your book before that time if you wish.
Please note that this does not apply to self-collect books, which will need to renewed every seven days as normal.
Our new book display explores the life and work of scholar, writer and political activist Angela Davis.
Davis has worked and campaigned over several decades for racial and gender equality, and wider social justice. She was a co-founder of Critical Resistance, an organisation working to dismantle the prison industrial complex, and was a longstanding member of the Communist Party USA, even running twice as their vice-presidential candidate in the 1980s. She was also a member of the Black Panther Party. Her academic work focuses on feminist and Marxist philosophy, critical theory, punishment and imprisonment, and African American studies. She is perhaps best known for her incarceration in 1970 and the “Free Angela Davis” movement that campaigned for her release until her acquittal in 1972.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
Readers may be interested in the following ebooks:
Alongside our current Martin Luther King Jr. book display, we are now displaying a selection of items from the Philip and Rosamund Davies U.S. Election Campaigns Archive which relate in a variety of ways to King’s life, work and legacy.
Central to the display is a magazine commemorating the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, who was himself assassinated in 1968, two months after King, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination. In this magazine, visitors to the library can read Kennedy’s famous speech given in the immediate aftermath of the news of King’s assassination.
Robert “Bobby” Kennedy features again in a selection of campaign badges – his reads “Sock it to ’em Bobby”. It can be seen alongside one for Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign; King himself supported Johnson’s campaign, and Johnson would go on to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The selection is completed by three badges from Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign which make the longevity of King’s legacy clear by creating a direct connection between King and Obama.
Finally, looking at the wider context of the civil rights movement, we have on display a pamphlet produced by Henry Winston, another African American political leader and activist, entitled Negro-White Unity.
About the US Elections Campaign Archive
The Philip and Rosamund Davies U.S. Elections Campaigns Archive is an actively growing collection of campaign ephemera from American elections at all levels (National, State, Local). The Archive covers the 19th Century up to and including our current period, but the majority dates from the late 20th Century onwards. Materials include Includes buttons, posters, leaflets, stickers, t-shirts & hats, to more unique items: dolls, jewellery, shoes, bars of soap, playing cards, artwork & commemorative plates!
Negro-White Unity by Henry Winston, (New Outlook Publishers, 1967) (MS. 21407/204)
Henry Winston was an African American political leader and Marxist activist. Winston was actively involved in campaigning for African American Civil Rights in the 1940s and 50s, before the mainstream movement began. Winston was imprisoned from 1956-61 because of his involvement with the Communist Party. His imprisonment was seen as controversial due to his declining health and Winston eventually went blind due to inadequate treatment whilst in prison. This pamphlet was produced after Winston had left prison and had become the Communist Party USA Chairman. A digitised version of this leaflet is available via the American Left Ephemera Collection, University of Pittsburgh Digital Collections (https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:31735061655746)
Robert F. Kennedy: The last campaign (Award Books, 1968) (MSS. Amer. s. 33 / 1 / 1)
Robert “Bobby” Kennedy was the attorney general of his brother John F. Kennedy’s administration in 1961-64. During that time, both Kennedys witnessed the growing civil rights movement, and the growth of King as a civil rights leader. In 1968, Bobby was running for the Democrat candidate, when the news of King’s assassination came through. The pages here show quotations from Bobby Kennedy’s speech in immediate response to the news, and shows his attendance at King’s funeral. This magazine was created to commemorate Bobby Kennedy’s final campaign, as he would also be assassinated two months after King.
Badges
Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat Candidate, 1964 (MSS. Amer. s. 33 / 50)
Lyndon B. Johnson became the president after the Kennedy assassination. Partially in memory of John F. Kennedy, Johnson worked hard to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress. King was present when Johnson signed the Act into law.
Robert (Bobby) Kennedy, Democrat Candidate, 1968 (MSS. Amer. s. 33 / 50)
The badges chosen here (during the main campaign and in the run up to the 2009 inauguration) create a direct connection with Obama and Martin Luther King. Notably, one badge alters the famous picture of King with Malcolm X, taken in 1964.
Books by or including Dr King from the Vere Harmsworth collections
Stride toward freedom: The Montgomery story (Harpers & Brothers, 1958)
King’s first memoir discussed the events of the Montgomery bus boycott, which famously involved fellow activist Rosa Parks. King discusses the racial conditions before, during and after the boycott, the role of local activists and the importance of a non-violent approach. Later editions are also available in the Vere Harmsworth Library.
The Negro Protest: James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King talk with Kenneth B. Clark (Beacon Press, 1963)
Kenneth Clark was a psychologist. His famous work with his wife Marnie Clark involving children and dolls of different races was influential in the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. This book is the text from Clark’s televised interviews with the three leading African American leaders of their time, and showcases the changing movement and different approaches, especially between King and Malcolm X. An ebook version is available via SOLO.
Strength to Love (Hodder & Stoughton, 1964)
King’s second book, originally published in 1963, contains King’s most well known and loved homilies. It enhanced King’s identity and his religious views, especially among the white audience. The version on display is the first UK edition, published in 1964. An ebook version of a later edition is available via SOLO.
Why we can’t wait (Harper & Rowe, 1964)
King’s third book, it tells the story of African American activism in the spring and summer of 1963. It also argues against the gradualist approach to Civil Rights.
Where do we go from here: chaos or community? (Bantam Books, 1968)
King’s last published work, the book was an analysis of the current state of the civil rights movement in 1968, and the state of American race relations. Post the Civil Rights Act, King was focused on improving the wages and living conditions of African Americans. This specific edition was published after King’s assassination, and includes a foreword by King’s widow, Coretta Scott King. An ebook version of a later edition is available via SOLO.
You can find out more about King’s works at The Martin Luther King Research & Education Institute at Stanford University: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a US federal holiday honouring King and the impact he had in advancing civil rights in the United States, falls this year on Monday 20th January. To mark this occasion, the Vere Harmsworth Library has created a book display highlighting some of the resources in our collection which relate to King and his legacy.
The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.
To find out more about using the Vere Harmsworth Library collections please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).
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