Censorship

Berkowitz, Eric, Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News. Boston: Beacon Press, 2021.

Biesen, Sheri Chinen, “Classic Hollywood and American Film Censorship”, The American Historian, 2019.

URL

Coetzee. J. M., Giving Offense : Essays on Censorship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Fellion, Matthew, and Katherine Inglis, Censorship: A Literary History of Subversion and Control. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Halperin, David M. and Trevor Hoppe (eds.), The War on Sex. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Heins, Marjorie, Sex, Sin and Blasphemy: A Guide to America’s Censorship Wars.New York: The New Press, 1993.

Karolides, Nicholas J, Margaret Bald, and Dawn B. Sova, 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature. 2ndEdition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2011.

Kibler, M. Alison, Censoring Racial Ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African Struggles over Race and Representation, 1890-1930.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Levy, Leonard W., Freedom of Speech and Press in Early American History: Legacy of Suppression.New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963.

Ovenden, Richard., Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020.

Pekoll, Kristin, Beyond Banned Books: Defending Intellectual Freedom Throughout Your Library. Chicago: American Library Association Editions, 2019.

Petersen, Klaus, and Allen C. Hutchinson (eds.), Interpreting Censorship in Canada.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.

Post, Robert C. (ed.), Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1998.

Reichman, Henry, Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools.3rdEdition. Chicago and London: American Library Association, 2001.

Scales, Pat R., Teaching Banned Books: 32 Guides for Children and Teens. Chicago: American Library Association Editions, 2020.

Soley, Lawrence, Censorship Inc.: The Corporate Threat to Free Speech in the United States. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002.

Sova, Dawn, Banned Books: Literatue Suppressed on Social Grounds (3rd Edition). New York: Facts on File, 2011.

Vose, Robin, The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle over Word and Image for the Greater Glory of God. London: Reaktion Books, 2022.

Wells, Ira, On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy. Windsor (ON): Biblioasis, 2025.

An Embarrassment to All Canadians

The Government of Alberta embarrassed itself and all Canadians when Education Minister Demetrios Nicholaides issued a directive in July to all Alberta school boards banning from all Alberta school libraries, both elementary and secondary, a wide array of books that met his definition of having any “sexually explicit content” or “non-sexually explicit content” whatsoever.

Alberta Returns to 17th Century Puritanism for Its School Libraries

17th Century puritanism has come back to life in the Alberta Government. Last week, its Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides signed a Ministerial Order that is jaw-dropping. Concerned that some Alberta school libraries have books that are too sexually explicit, he decided to solve the problem.

Open Letter Calls for Reinstatement of York Region Paramedic Fired for Facebook Post Criticizing Israeli Government

Leading Canadian legal and human rights scholars released an open letter today calling on the Regional Municipality of York to reinstate a long-time member of its Paramedic Services fired for a Facebook comment deploring the Government of Israel’s bombing of Iran and its killing of journalists, municipal and health care workers, and fellow first responders in Gaza.