120 Banned Books: ... || the list continues to grow...
Written: Oct 09 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: Scholarly, well resourced, detailed, broad range of subjects and books.
Cons: Some rather esoteric books discussed. A scholarly, rather than entertaining, read.
The Bottom Line: The right to say what you want and be heard by those who care to listen is a long-standing American right. Its application in the real-world will always be contentious.
sleeper54's Full Review: Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald, Dawn B. Sova...
... There is an earlier edition of this book featured here on Epinions. Unfortunately, between its publication date in 1999 and this book's publication in 2005 the title number grew from '100 banned books' to '120 banned books'.
Designating one week a year to highlight the attempts and practice of censoring books in the US is a great idea. Unfortunately, the pressure to ban books and make the number grow continues book after book, week after week, year after year.
120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature is an examination of challenged books and the societal and legal pressures that have been brought against them. Author Nicholas J. Karolides has spent his academic life (outside of his normal duties as a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls) studying and publishing works relating to book censorship.
I could find nothing online pointing to him as being a 'nut' or a 'kook'. Indeed, he seems to be an honored member of his University community and a respected participant in the national discussion of book censorship. His work and tone here do nothing to dispel that impression.
120 Banned Books:... divides the subject books into four distinct subsets:
Literature Suppressed on:
- Political Grounds, includes: ...Animal Farm ...The Grapes of Wrath ...Mein Kampf ...The Prince ...Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Religious Grounds, includes: ...The Bible ...Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ...The Koran ...On the Origin of Species ...The Talmud
- Sexual Grounds, includes: ...The Art of Love ...Candide ...Forever ...Lolita ...Snow Falling On Cedars
- Social Grounds, includes: ...The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ...Black Like Me ...Captain Underpants ...Fahrenheit 451 ...To Kill A Mockingbird
There are thirty books selected for each section, and a 'bonus' book in the Social Grounds section, making 121 banned books discussed here.
As you can tell by scanning the selections above all 'the usual suspects' are included; and a few that surprised even me.
Each book is discussed in turn. An introductory heading notes the Author, Original date and place(s) of publication, Publisher, and Literary form. Of course, some books lack one or more of these, for example the section about The Bible has only the Literary form information, noting it is a "Religious text".
An extended Summary of the storyline or the history of the text follows. The summaries of the novels definitely tell the whole story, something to keep in mind before reading those entries.
Extensive discussion of the Censorship History of the book follows. These are 'matter-of-fact' discussions of legal and societal actions over the years (and centuries, if applicable) to remove the books from society. These can be as historical as Papal campaigns to burn copies of The Koran and The Talmud during the Middle Ages to recent school board and court actions in places as small as Cedarville, Arkansas to ban Harry Potter books from general circulation in school libraries.
The authors do a good job of simply reporting the history and facts of actions in a neutral manner. Sources are often cited and the book is replete with quotations and citations of applicable historical and contemporary documents. It is not really an 'entertaining' read but more of an 'educational' read/resource.
At the end of each book's entry is a list of Further Readings that include book, newspaper, magazine, and online resources for further investigation of a particular book's censorship history.
The Bottom Line This is clearly not a text that I would recommend reading for entertainment. Instead, 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature serves better as a resource for facts and history.
There is no posturing for this or that point of view about any given book. The reader is allowed to digest all the data and information and draw their own conclusions about a particular book and situation.
Of course, the lines are usually drawn in stone on issues like this. Each side of the censorship issue will surely find thoughts, actions, and decisions in here that they can 'spin' to support their own conclusions. But an open mind will allow any reader to get a clearer picture of the thoughts of 'the other side' and how their own beliefs might best refute the strongly held beliefs of others.
This review is an entry (albeit delayed) for the third annual Banned Books Week Write Offsponsored by fellow Epinions member pestyside.
Sponsored nationally by the American Library Association, ALA, the week is designed to "(celebrate) the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them."
I firmly believe in the rights of adults to read whatever they want without restriction. The right of parents to control the material available to their child is a much tougher issue to easily settle and adapt to all situations.
I absolutely believe the parent is the ultimate arbiter of what their child should have access to read. The school performance of any child should not be penalized by the desire of their parent to restrict access to particular books or writings accessible to other students. Alternative resources should be available for all such students, in my opinion.
That opinion may differ from the ALA and others participating in this Epinions write-off ... but that is OK. After all, this write-off is about expressing opinions and having the right to have your voice heard.
I urge you to check out the link above and visit all the other entries in this now-traditional and always 'most helpful' Epinions write-off. .
Throughout history writers have had their works censored on political, religious, sexual and social grounds. Tracing the censorship histories of 120 w...More at HotBookSale
Tracing the censorship histories of 120 works from around the world, this volume--expanded from 100 Banned Books --provides a summary of each work, it...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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