Essays
John Milton, Areopagitica. [published in 1644 to protest an order issued by Parliament the previous year requiring government approval and licensing of all published books.]
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)
https://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty.html?chapter_num=1#book-reader
Articles
Richard Beaudry, “I help librarians handle book bans. Here’s why it’s getting worse,” Maclean’s, July 7, 2023.
Anita Brooks Kirkland, “Sleeping with the Elephant: Canada Deals with the Scourge of Censorship Sweeping Across America,” Canadian School Libraries Journal, Vol. 7 No. 2, Spring 2023.
Devon Peavoy, “Banning Books, Burning Bridges: Recognizing Student Freedom of Expression Rights in Canadian Classrooms,” Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies, vol 13, 125-155, 2004
Ella Creamer, "A ‘great shock’: Julianne Moore’s children’s book under review by Trump administration", The Guardian, February 17, 2025.
Hillel Italie, "Free speech organizations denounce Education Department’s calling book bans a ‘hoax’" The Associated Press, January 27, 2025.
Videos
“Banning books in schools: What does it mean for students?” Panelists: Dáminí Awóyígà, Jayreece Whiley, Micaiah Aladejebi; Moderator: El Jones. Centre for Free Expression, November 9, 2023.
“Censorship Is No Friend of Social Justice: Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Polarized Times,” Emily Knox in Conversation with Toni Samek. Centre for Free Expression, January 25, 2023.
"We can't teach a book with that word in it": Reflections on the role of literature in society,” Lawrence Hill in conversation with Debra Thompson, Centre for Free Expression, February 5, 2025.
Books
Ira Wells, On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy. Windsor (ON): Biblioasis, 2025.
Eric Berkowitz, Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West. From the Ancients to Fake News. Boston: Beacon Press, 2021.
Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis, Censored: A Literary History of Subversion & Control. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017.
Richard Ovenden, Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020.
Lawrence Soley, Soley, Censorship Inc.: The Corporate Threat to Free Speech in the United States. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002.
Robin Vose, The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle over Word and Imagefor the Greater Glory of God. London: Reaktion Books, 2022.
