Dropping book prices, not public libraries, destroyed American circulating libraries

Evidence

Circulating libraries declined after the end of the American Civil War, destroyed not by the advance of public libraries, but by the drop in book prices which made ownership more attractive than borrowing for their core middle-class clientele. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 603

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 603