Banned Books

Banished Podcast: Sunshine State's Descent Into Darkness

by Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

Two historian podcasters evaluate the effort to politicize the history curriculum in Florida's K-12 schools and public colleges. 

I Helped Thousands of Teens Affected by Book Bans—Listen to Them

by Leigh Hurwitz

Teens are receiving a message loud and clear from new state laws restricting the content of classrooms and libraries: Politicians want people like them to disappear. Defending access to library books is vital. 

Texas Leading the Nation in Book Banning

Not suprisingly, books dealing with racism and LGBTQ themes are being targeted for removal from library and school shelves, even preventing them from being read voluntarily. 

States Curtailing Students' Access to Books, Ideas

In many states, school librarians will be less free to recommend books, and students less free to explore them, with potentially serious consequences for educational quality and personal and intellectual growth, experts argue. 

Authors of Color Disproportionately Targeted by Book Bans

Angry parents yelling at school board meetings present a picture of these authors' work that they find unrecognizable. Read what several targeted authors say about their books. 

PEN Report: More than 1,000 Books Banned in US

PEN found that 86 school districts had removed 1,145 titles from their shelves over the last nine months, some permanently and others while an investigation was under way.

The Texas School District Considering Banning "Maus" Needs to Reconsider

"Before reading Maus, if I had a sense of what Nazis were, it was as abstract villains, the bad guys Indiana Jones fought."

Caught on Tape: North Texas School Superintendent Orders Removal of Transgender, LGBTQ Themed Books

"[Superintendent Jeremy Glenn] noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, 'You better hide it'."

My Life With Maus

by Tom Engelhardt

Although the aftermath of the Tennessee "Maus" controversy involved a flood of donated copies sent to the local community and the book's return to the bestseller charts, the revival of book-banning sentiments bodes ill for the course of the nation. 

Book Bans Target Teaching the History of Oppression

by Marilisa Jiménez Garcia

Children, particularly those who are part of minority groups, have never been spared from horrors, in history or today. The rhetoric of book-banners is rooted in a privileged viewpoint and serves the interests of inequality today.

The Banning of Maus: Even Dumber Than You Think

David Corn says that for the students of McMinn County, "their intellectual development is being held hostage by board members who are stuck in another era, who find vulgarity in an old pop song, and who cannot be bothered to do their own homework."

Books on Race, Sexuality Disappearing from Texas School Shelves

In a sample of 100 Texas school districts, 75 formal requests to remove books from libraries were filed between September and December (only one was filed in those districts a year before). But some students are fighting back. 

Conservative Book Banners Have Ties to Rich Megadonors

Local groups lodging complaints about curriculum and school library books are part of a national network of astroturf organizations that combine mass membership with the resources of major ideologically-driven donors. 

10 Books Texas Doesn't Want You to Read

"The subjectivity involved in defining inappropriate, obscene, or distressing—and the danger of politicizing such definitions—is at the center of Krause’s challenge, and it shows in the books on his ban list."

The Hate They Censor: Burying Lessons of History

The editor of the Mississippi Free Press compares today's national wave of book banning to the efforts to control information that established the "Lost Cause" narrative in early 20th century Mississippi. 

Banning "Beloved" Won't Help Protect Kids, But it Will Help Sanitize Racism

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

It's worthwhile to consider Morrison's characterization of censoring Huck Finn as a “purist and yet elementary kind of censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children.”

The Fight to Ban Books

"Pennsylvania does not have a law banning critical race theory from schools, at least not yet. In states where Republican governors have signed legislation banning critical race theory, books are disappearing from shelves."