Libraries are always entangled in their cultures, and that means American libraries have always interacted with, adopted, and at the same time resisted capitalist assumptions about human behavior. We will explore that fraught relationship by looking at the past, and in particular looking at moments when some of the core values we so often fail to live up to were first formulated. What was going on during that moment that encouraged libraries to resist and take the high ground? What would it look like if these values were used as a template and scaled up to create a more sustainable and just information environment?