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With book banning increasing around America, this book breaks down how and why contemporary reading practices can lead to censorship.Requests for the redaction, removal, relocation, and restriction of books-also known as challenges-have markedly increased in the 2020s.
Book Banning in 21st-Century American Libraries, based on 25 contemporary book challenge cases in schools and public libraries across the United States argues that understanding contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, is vital to understanding why people attempt to censor books in public institutions.
The books focuses on the why of censorship and posits that many censorship behaviors and practices, such as challenging books and targeting public libraries and schools, are intimately tied to the how one understands the practice of reading and its effects on character development and behavior. It discusses reading as a social practice that has changed over time and encompasses different physical modalities and interpretive strategies. In order to understand why people challenge books, it presents a model of how the practice of reading is understood by challengers including "what it means" to read a text, and especially how one constructs the idea of "appropriate" reading materials.
List of contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Unprecedented
Chapter 2: Power and Knowledge
Chapter 3: Truth, Justice, & An American Library
Chapter 4: Perfect Timing
Chapter 5: A Nation Wars Against Its Own People
Chapter 6: Inappropriate Institutions and Organizations
Chapter 7: Reading Should Edify the Soul
Chapter 8: Fear, Knowledge, and Power
Appendix A
Appendix B
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
About the author
Emily Knox is a professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics and policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. She received her Ph.D. from the doctoral program at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information.
