Book Censorship
The American Library Association's Banned Books Week Website
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
The American Library Association continues to improve these pages, which is heartening. There is much more substantive content here than in the past, although a central goal still appears be selling the annual "Banned Books Resource Kit." Still, for anyone seeking information on challenges and attempts to censor books in the United States, this is an essential resource.
Banned Books and Censorship: a Closer Look at Book Banning
http://www.booksatoz.com/censorship/banned.htm
Sponsored by Books A to Z, editor Claire Jennings' interlinked pages include annotated links to a variety of censorship resources; in addition to book banning, Jennings also looks at censorship on the Internet, offers quotations, articles, and more. A great resource marred only by a cluttered "look."
Banned Books and Censorship: Information and Resources
http://www.luc.edu/libraries/banned/
Karla Petersen and Steve Harsin of Loyola University library offer a short essay with links interspersed in the text; this is primarily a springboard to other sites, and a great starting point.
Banned Books Online
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/banned-books.html
John Mark Ockerbloom is author and compiler of this extensive, more text-oriented page; he incorporates useful links in his narrative, but this is more than just another "list of links." One can access many of the challenged works through links to the Online Books Archive at the University of Pennsylvania.
Banned Books 1997: a Case of Misrepresentation
http://capo.org/opeds/banbook.html
Steve McKinzie argues the ALA's Banned Books Week is founded on an eccentric and exaggerated definition of censorship: "Parents who challenge the inclusion of a given text in a specific literature class and citizens who openly protest a library's collection development decision are only speaking out about things that they believe in [--] a grand American tradition and one that we should encourage as much as we can." A different but well-expressed viewpoint.
A Brief History of Comic Book Censorship
http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/09-08-98/alibi_feat2.html
Devin O'Leary's article is indeed brief, but points out that even the "lowly" comic book has often been targeted by censors. See also "Comic Book Censorship," below.
Censorship of Comics Bibliography
http://www.cbldf.org/research/biblio-30s.html
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund offers this very detailed bibliography of comics censorship, listing books, articles, legal publications, laws, and court cases. One can view the entire list or just a particular decade. Another bibliography of comic book censorship is available from John Bullough and Michael Rhode at http://www.rpi.edu/%7Ebulloj/search/CENSORSHIP.html
Comic Book Censorship
http://129.252.83.77/papers/1999comic-01.html
Dewey Adams takes a more in-depth look at censored comic books, with a particular focus on the case of Mike Diana, in this article from Goathead.org; there is also a bibliography and a few links to further resources. See also the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website.
Comic Books and Juvenile Deliquency: Interim Senate Report of 1954
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html
In 1954, the Senate (yes, the United States Senate) felt compelled to investigate the link between comic books and the raging epidemic of juvenile delinquency among American youth. This is the report which led to the creation of the Comic Books Code.
Frequently Challenged Books
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/Archives/12_03/cenfreq.htm
Lists some "of the most frequently challenged books and the objections raised." From Rethinking Schools Online: an Urban Education Journal.
Literary Censorship in America's Secondary Schools: Where Should the Line Be Drawn?
Jacob Wright authored this paper in his "sophomore year," though he does not say whether in high school or college. Note that the suggested citation he includes at the top refers to an apparently expired Web address. This is the current home of the paper.
Other Days, Other Ways: American Book Censorship, 1918-1945
http://ihr.org/jhr/v10/v10p133_Martin.html
This lengthy article by James J. Martin, regrettably without documentation, originally appeared in The Journal of Historical Review.
Reading, Writing, and Censorship: When Reading Good Books Can Get Schools in Trouble
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/Archives/12_03/cenmain.htm
Barbara Miner's article appeared in Rethinking Schools Online: an Urban Education Journal.

 




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