Banning Books: Overview

Introduction

The practice of challenging or banning books has long been a strategy used to label reading materials as offensive on moral, religious, or political grounds. Books with sexually explicit content, or those that challenge religious or political orthodoxy, have, throughout history, been regarded as a threat to public welfare. While the practice of banning books has declined in democratic societies, challenges to literature still occur today for the same reasons.

In totalitarian societies, books have been banned for challenging a government’s ruling authority. Arguments for banning books have claimed the need to promote political stability or maintain public morality. In more open societies, books that offend conventionality are often banned or challenged as well. If a book is deemed offensive, some may argue that it is promoting ideas that can have a detrimental influence on individuals (often children) and on society as a whole. When public funds are used to buy the materials in question, the issue becomes further complicated.

Champions of intellectual freedom and free speech adamantly oppose challenges made by individuals, groups, or institutions who threaten to ban books. Opponents of book banning argue that the threshold for causing offense differs between individuals and across cultures, and that one individual, group, or institution should not dictate what constitutes offense to another. While adults are afforded discretion in deciding whether to read a particular book, many agree that parents have the right to limit the books to which their own children are exposed.

Banning books has a long history in the United States, where challenges have repeatedly come into conflict with the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Many, including librarians, see the banning of books as direct erosion of the First Amendment rights through censorship. Frequently, such challenges and the ensuing debate have focused on the books available at public libraries and the reading curriculum at school libraries.

Understanding the Discussion

Ban: To prohibit, usually through legal or social authority.

Book challenge: Documented request to remove materials, including books, from schools or libraries.

First Amendment to the US Constitution: The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Offensive: Causing feelings of insult or strong displeasure.

Suppress: To hold back or remove from circulation.

Totalitarianism: A form of government in which the state is overseen by a strict, central authority that allows little or no deviation from the laws and rules which it imposes.

History

Historically, illiteracy and the dearth of printed materials meant that books did not exert the influence they now have on society. As literacy rates increased and published materials became more easily accessible and affordable, totalitarian regimes resorted to the banning of books as a means of controlling people. History is replete with examples of prohibitions placed on literature. The works of Aristophanes, Ovid, and Confucius, and even portions of the Bible, were all at one point subjected to bans. Materials deemed as subversive or offensive were often simply burned to prohibit their access.

The content of some books was deemed offensive by religious institutions. For example, Western religious doctrine strongly objected to biblical translations that challenged the Church’s authority or allowed more personal interpretations of the text. In the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church began keeping a list of prohibited books, known in Latin as the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The aim of the list was to prevent people from reading books that would expose them to ideas that contradicted, misrepresented, or criticized the church’s edicts or interpretations of the Bible. Two such examples include Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), and Nikos Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1951). Objections to these texts centered, respectively, on the perceived deviation from church history and the unorthodox depiction of Christ. While the Index was abolished in 1966, challenges to literature on religious grounds continued into the modern day. In 1988, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was banned in several Muslim countries because its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad was so offensive to Muslims. In fact, Rushdie faced a fatwa, or call for him to be killed, by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was the Supreme Leader of Iran at that time. On a more subtle level, the US version of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, which was published in 1996, is different than the original version published in England. The American version edited out some sexual content and perceived anti-Christian content.

Political objections to literature can be cited by numerous examples. In the Soviet Union, religious books were seen as contradictory to the atheist views of the country. In Nazi Germany, numerous books were banned and publicly burned (as many as 25,000 at one 1933 event): Jewish authors were targeted as were books considered decadent or subversive. However, it is not only within totalitarian regimes that books have been banned; books are routinely challenged in democratic societies as well. Challenges are made on political grounds; books that deny historical events such as the Holocaust or take an unpopular stance, such as speaking out against a war, have all been challenged in the past.

Offense on moral grounds is often based on religious criteria. One common charge against banned books is that they are obscene. The US courts have historically had great difficulty in defining obscene material. Obscenity has been widely accepted as meaning that materials contain elements of sexuality, and foul or discriminatory language that can be seen as offensive. The most famous trials over banned books have been obscenity trials. James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) was banned in the US for its frank sexual content. The book was banned for a decade before a landmark legal decision acquitted it of obscenity charges. Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) experienced a similar prohibition, also for its treatment of sexuality, and was banned from publication in the US until 1959 and in England until 1960.

The movement against the banning of books also has a long history. One major landmark predating the twentieth century was the publication of John Milton’s pamphlet Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644). The Areopagitica provided the framework for modern opposition to censorship. This order that Milton opposed was designed to bring publishing under government control by creating several official censors to whom authors would submit their work for approval prior to publication. Milton argued that pre-censorship of authors was little more than an excuse for state control of thought.

Those who argue against the banning of books have often based their arguments on protecting the rights of individuals to free speech as well as promoting intellectual freedom—the rights protected by the First Amendment. On issues concerning religion and morality, advocates for the First Amendment argue that it is indefensible to encourage censorship simply because people do not share similar beliefs. Opponents of censorship also state that it is virtually impossible, for the same reasons, to define concepts such as obscenity. Further, those who support free speech and free expression argue that there is great danger in an illiterate or ignorant populace that is easier to control through the exercise of power and demagoguery. Thus the unrestricted flow of information is viewed as a hallmark of a healthy democracy and makes it more difficult to exercise control and power over the uneducated and powerless.

Most attempts to ban books have occurred at the local level, with challenges made to public or school libraries. Attempts to ban books outright were not overly successful in the latter half of the twentieth century; still, there were instances where particular books were removed from libraries or prohibited from purchase based on complaints. While challenges have been made to books that discuss the topics of health, sexuality, race, and religion, challenges have also been made to works that are considered classics. For example, among the books most frequently challenged during the twentieth century were Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Controversial books are frequently targets for banning from school reading lists, with most complaints coming from parents. Many schools may choose to maintain a copy of the challenged book in their library, but stop short of making the book required reading.

Banning Books Today

Censorship in the form of banning books continued to evoke much debate worldwide. In the United States, challenges to books have grown significantly; the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) reported that it received 1,269 reports of book challenges in 2022, representing the highest number of attempted book bans in ALA history. Further, this number represented a nearly 50 percent increase over the number of book challenges in 2021.

That trend grew, in part, out of events taking place in 2020. In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police sparked widespread protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality and increased interest in understanding the history of racism in the United States. This prompted backlash from conservatives, many of whom began protesting a concept known as critical race theory. By July 2021, twenty-six states had introduced legislation or otherwise restricted discussion of racism and sexism in schools. Critical race theorists study the ways in which race and racism are socially constructed by institutions and systems to perpetuate a racial caste system that oppresses Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. These systems and institutions date back to before the founding of the United States, and proponents of critical race theory maintain that the study of US law and history without critical race theory is incomplete, inaccurate, and racist. As debates around critical race theory continued into 2022 and beyond, certain books, such as those discussing systemic racism, became targeted by critical race theory opponents.

As such, the unprecedented rise in book challenges during the 2020s was connected to a growing movement among the religious right and politically conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, which became increasingly vocal in removing books from public and school libraries about race, gender identity, and sexuality, among other topics. According to the ALA, of the thirteen most challenged books of 2022, seven were challenged for LGBTQIA+ content. Other books were challenged for content involving drug use, profanity, and content deemed to be sexually explicit. Increasingly, groups have made demands to censor multiple titles at once—a significant change from the practice most common prior to 2020 in which a single parent sought to restrict access to a single book. In fact, 40 percent of book challenges in 2022 sought to remove or restrict access to more than one hundred books at the same time. New legislation also led to increased book bans. In 2022, seven states passed laws imposing limits on the books held in libraries, and dozens of other states considered bills in 2023 that would curtail Americans' freedom to read.

The politically charged environment surrounding challenged and banned books also inspired watchdog groups that monitor censorship to be more vigilant. These groups take on the task of defending books that are being challenged, as well as the rights of readers to decide for themselves which books they should read. Many advocates of free speech and intellectual freedom continue to rally around the idea that banning books is, in its violation of constitutional principles, un-American.

Despite the rise in attempts to restrict access to books, studies showed that the majority of Americans are against book bans. In March 2022, the ALA commissioned a survey that found that 71 percent of voters across the political spectrum were against book bans at their local public libraries, with 75 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of independents, and 70 percent of Republicans surveyed opposing the bans. In response to the surge of book bans, the ALA together with the American Federation of Teachers, publishers, and more than two dozen other advocacy groups, established the Unite Against Book Bans coalition. The coalition aimed “to empower individuals and communities to fight censorship and protect the freedom to read.”

While the total number of book challenges recorded by the OIF in 2023 was slightly lower than the previous year, the organization also noted that 2023 saw the highest number of unique title challenges in history at 4,240. The debate had continued to influence legislative developments, with some state lawmakers still working to introduce and/or pass bills restricting books in schools and libraries even as some in other states began efforts to counter the rise in such measures. In 2023, Illinois and California became the first states to pass laws designed to prevent book bans to some extent; these particular laws drew their own criticism, however, as they stipulated financial penalties for violations. As additional states moved toward similar legislative approaches, in late 2023 a group of federal lawmakers introduced a bill that would provide financial support to institutions combating book bans. At the same time, by 2024 several states had put forth and passed bills punishing library and school staff involved in providing books deemed offensive to students and young people; in many cases, penalties included the potential for criminal prosecution.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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