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Book Bans

  • SOURCE: Education Week
    3/16/2023

    Confusion Over Book Bans in Florida is a Feature, Not a Bug, of New Policies

    The state education commissioner of Florida, Manny Diaz, has insisted that the state is not banning books. Civil liberties and library groups say that vague laws and public threats of prosecution are pushing educators to remove books without technically being forced to do so, which is the point. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    3/16/2023

    Meet Some Librarians Fighting Back

    Librarian Mary Grahame Hunter says libraries are places where children's rights and intellectual autonomy are respected. Some in her Michigan community are working to change that. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    3/10/2023

    What are the Evils and Dangers Targeted by Book Bans?

    A study of the books flagged for restriction in Duval County, Florida in the last two years suggests that a particular political vision is driving the bans, focusing on LGBTQ themes and racial and religious diversity. But a fear of adolescents' developing autonomy also seems to be in play. 

  • SOURCE: The Hill
    3/3/2023

    At its 150th Anniversary, the Comstock Law is Relevant Again

    by Jonathan Friedman and Amy Werbel

    Anthony Comstock drew on elite connections to give himself near unilateral power to confiscate "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, or immoral" materials —terms he was free to define on his own—and prosecute people for possessing them. Right-wing politicians seem to be inspired by the example. 

  • 2/22/2023

    America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

    by Brianna Labuskes

    The Armed Services Editions paperback books were wildly popular among World War II servicemembers. But they became symbols of American freedom to read in the war against fascism only after a bitter domestic battle about the works and topics that would be permitted. 

  • SOURCE: African American Policy Forum
    2/12/2023

    African American Policy Forum Announces #TruthBeTold Campaign

    The AAPF is launching an interactive project to monitor efforts to ban books, censor classes, and punish teachers, and to offer reader the opportunity to share their valued experiences with antiracist education. 

  • SOURCE: Why Are We Like This?
    1/28/2023

    The Case of the Disappearing Libraries Feat. Judd Legum

    Journalist Judd Legum has been following the story of Florida teachers whose districts have told them Florida's new educational laws require them to close or remove their classroom libraries unless all the books are specifically approved by the state. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    1/31/2023

    Florida Districts to Teachers: Hide Your Books or Risk Felony Charge

    After requiring that both classroom libraries and school libraries have their contents vetted by trained media specialists, Florida delayed publishing the training for six months; amid uncertainty two school districts have told teachers to cover up their books. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    1/24/2023

    College Faculty: After K-12, Curriculum Laws are Coming For You

    by James Grossman and Jeremy C. Young

    State colleges involved with concurrent enrollment programs that allow high school students to take classes for credit are already susceptible to laws purporting to fight "indoctrination" in the secondary school curriculum. More intrusions on academic freedom are coming. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    10/17/2022

    Book Bans Today Recall 1950s Panic over Comic Books

    by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

    Child psychologist Fredric Wortham had fough Jim Crow by theorizing the damage caused to Black children by segregation. He had a less likely role in supporting the idea that lurid plots in comic books would create a generation of emotionally damaged adults. 

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    9/20/2022

    Book Bans Reflect Outdated Views on How Children Read

    by Trisha Tucker

    Research shows that children are not vessels into which books pour ideas, but co-creators of meaning as they read and process a book. Yet today's moral panic imagines books breaking down barriers between innocent childhood and a corrupt world. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/16/2022

    American Library Association: Book Bans Accelerating

    “It represents an escalation, and we’re truly fearful that at some point we will see a librarian arrested for providing constitutionally protected books on disfavored topics,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the library association.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/12/2022

    Today's Book Bans Might be Most Dangerous Yet

    by Jonna Perrillo

    Today's book banners have broadened their attention from communist themes in textbooks and are attacking young adult literature titles that students are choosing to read, a much more significant intrusion on freedom of thought. 

  • SOURCE: PEN America
    8/17/2022

    PEN America: The Nation's Censored Classrooms

    by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

    "The restrictions and chilling effects of gag order laws threaten to destroy the climate of open inquiry required in free and democratic educational institutions."

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    8/9/2022

    Fighting Back Against Book Banners

    by Margaret Sullivan

    Attempts to ban books from public libraries are a threat to democratic culture and should alarm all Americans, argues Post columnist Margaret Sullivan.