censorship

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• 6/6/2021
  

  Why a Culture War Over Critical Race Theory? Consider the Pro-Slavery Congressional "Gag Rule"

  by Frank Palmeri and Ted Wendelin

  Like the Southern delegations who opposed discussion of slavery, opponents of Critical Race Theory believe that any discussion of persistent racial inequities in legal and other institutions is unacceptable because it is “divisive.”

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/2/2021
  

  Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Gets New French Edition, With Each Lie Annotated

  The publishers, who will donate proceeds to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, argue that with other versions of Hitler's manifesto circulating widely, a translation that preserves the incoherence and paranoia of the original with extensive debunking commentary is a positive contribution to efforts to fight the far right. 

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• 5/30/2021
  

  Review: Lesley Blume's “Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World”

  by Lawrence Wittner

  Journalist Lesley Blume's book "Fallout" ably tells the story about how John Hersey and the New Yorker navigated government censorship and political opposition to publish Hersey's "Hiroshima," a foundational work in later movements to prevent nuclear war.

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• 5/23/2021
  

  The Age of Reason and the Restless Masses: Censoring Class Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century

  by Eric Berkowitz

  The ruling classes of nineteenth century Europe were gravely concerned about the potential of mass media to help upend the class structure or incite workers to revolution. Their actions didn't seek to expunge taboo ideas, but to restrict their circulation to the elites. 

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• SOURCE: Oprah Daily
  3/25/2021
  

  Editors Refused to Publish Richard Wright's Most Important Novel—Until Now

  "Though Wright himself considered The Man Who Lived Underground his finest work, its depiction of police brutality was so graphic, his publishers believed that it shouldn't see the light of day. When Wright submitted the work to his editor, it was turned down."

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• 3/21/2021
  

  The Same Mistakes Twice? Teaching Dr. Seuss

  by Walter Kamphoefner

  Step back from the current media controversy and consider how Theodor Geisel's cartooning illustrate the contradictory nature of America's posture toward foreign and domestic racism in the World War II era, a pivotal moment for the nation that must be understood in all its complication. 

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• SOURCE: Iowa Capital Dispatch
  3/16/2021
  

  Iowa House Passes Controversial Bill to Ban ‘Divisive Concepts’ from School Training, Curriculum

  “This bill is a denial of history,” Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines, said. “The bill doesn’t want our next generations to receive complete American history education that includes the facts of our darkest hours.” 

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• SOURCE: Cinejoy
  3/16/2021
  

  Atomic Cover-Up

  by Greg Mitchell

  Greg Mitchell's Atomic Cover-Up premiers this month and tells the story of two film crews, one Japanese and one from the U.S. Army, whose footage of the human toll of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was seized and suppressed by the U.S. goverment. 

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• 3/14/2021
  

  FDR and the Need for Truth

  by Stephen Dando-Collins

  Franklin Roosevelt took a novel approach to handling bad domestic and military news in 1943, amid stiff political opposition: showing the public the hard truth about the Pacific War. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/98/2021
  

  Black History is Often Shunned, Like the Book I Wrote

  by Martha S. Jones

  The historian of voting rights and Black women's activism examines the reaction to a planned discussion of her book through a Louisiana public library. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/22/2020
  

  The Latest Chapter in Mississippi’s Long History of Squelching Anti-Racist Activism

  by William Sturkey

  The silencing of journalists and academics has always been integral to the regime of white supremacy in Mississippi. Now that new challenges are emerging to that regime, attacks on academic freedom, including the firing of historian Garrett Felber, have resurfaced.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  11/18/2020
  

  Hong Kong's New Rules have Created Confusion in the Classroom. Some Parents are Pulling their Children Out

  While pro-Beijing lawmakers stress the need to promote national unity through civics education, educators, historians and parents in Hong Kong expect censorship and indoctrination under new restrictions. 

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• SOURCE: Rest of World
  10/26/2020
  

  Control, Alter, Delete:Hong Kong Activists and Academics are Hurrying to Digitize Historical Records

  Museums dedicated to the struggle for civil liberties in Hong Kong face a crisis to preserve records in the face of new public safety laws aimed at curbing criticism of the People's Republic of China. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forbes
  9/6/2020
  

  Call Trump’s Attacks On The 1619 Project What They Are — Censorship of American History

  The 1619 Project has been published for a year. Why, now, is Donald Trump making a political issue over its use in schools? The author says it's not about teaching history but shaping national propaganda.

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• 8/16/2020
  

  Who Shaped the Story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

  by William Johnston

  Most Americans' knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects how American leaders in 1945 wanted the atomic bombings remembered more than their real history. 

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• SOURCE: Network of Concerned Historians
  8/13/2020
  

  Network of Concerned Historians Releases 2020 Annual Report on Global Incidents of Repression of Historians

  The Network of Concerned Historians releases a comprehensive report of global incidents of censorship, government suppression, archival restriction, or private harassment campaigns against historians for the past year. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  7/24/2020
  

  A Magazine Story Opened Eyes to Hiroshima’s Horror. White House Allies Plotted to Shut Them Again.

  by Greg Mitchell

  The Hersey article, with its unflinching account of what survivors witnessed in Hiroshima, threatened the official narrative of justification.

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• 6/14/2020
  

  John F. Kennedy Did What Donald Trump Only Wishes He Could Do

  by Paul Matzko

  Rules to promote “fairness” or prevent “discrimination” can all too easily turn into tools for gaining partisan advantage at the expense of free speech, a free press, and a functioning democracy.

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/13/2020
  

  Professor Apologizes for Using N-Word

  How should professors approach teaching situations where their subjects--artists or historical figures--have used racial slurs? 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/17/2020
  

  When “Fake News” Was Banned: An America Trump Might Have Loved

  by Adam Hochschild

  Exactly 100 years ago, this country’s media was laboring under the kind of official censorship that would undoubtedly thrill both Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo.