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Banned Books

  • SOURCE: Reuters
    4/7/2022

    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.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    2/17/2022

    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. 

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    1/24/2022

    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. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/2/2022

    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.

  • SOURCE: Mother Jones
    2/1/2022

    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."

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    12/8/2021

    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."

  • SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
    11/15/2021

    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. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    10/6/2021

    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."