Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds

Banned Books

by Nicholas J. Karolides

Throughout history, tyrants, totalitarian states, church institutions, and democratic governments alike have banned books that challenged their assumptions or questioned their authority. Even today, attempts by school boards, local governments, and religious fanatics to restrict our freedom to read continue.The four-volume Banned Books collection focuses on more than 400 works that have been censored for their political, social, religious, or erotic content -- in the United States and around the world -- from biblical times to the present day.

Works have been chosen for their literary or historical significance, including their role in the history of censorship. Most are read in middle- and high-school curricula as well as in university courses; some have been the focus of major national or international campaigns; and all were either written in English or are available in English translations.

Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds makes a special contribution to the understanding of political censorship, which results largely from a fear on the part of public officials that citizens may have access to information or ideas that governments would rather restrict or retain in the presumed interest of national security. Censorship may also result through private intervention by nongovernmental agencies, such as school boards or libraries, by the removal of materials that are deemed offensive to a group or constituency. This volume illustrates the extent and frequency of political censorship.

Works covered include:
-- Animal Farm, George Orwell
-- Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic
-- Burger's Daughter, Nadine Gordimer
-- Bury My Heart at WoundedKnee, Dee Brown
-- Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
-- The Case for India, Will Durant
-- Das Kapital, Karl Marx
-- Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
-- El Senor Presidente, Miguel Angel Asturias
-- The Fugitive, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
-- The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
-- Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
-- The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
-- Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
-- Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler
-- The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine
-- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction

584 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Zohreh Samiei]

بسیار خواندنی
امتیاز ۴-۵
بررسی کتابهایی ک سانسور شده اند حاوی داستان کتاب و علت سانسور

[Howard Gibbins]

Like the first two titles in this series (Social Grounds & Sexual Grounds), both of which I already reviewed, this one was also very interesting book. When you consider that the United States is supposed to be this beacon of democracy, it seems rather odd that they would suppress political viewpoints. With all the different worldviews in existence today it would seem more logical (at least to me) that these books shouldn't be suppressed, but should be readily available and this material should be critically analysed.

A total of 118 books are examined in this book. A short summary of the contents of each book is given, and then the censorship history is examined. Some of the objections came from parents who were offended when their children were assigned books to read, and school boards as well. A rather odd occurrence through was publishers themselves who refused to publish books due to their own political viewpoints.

There is one final book in this series that deals with religious censorship and I am looking forward to reading those as well. They were all written in 2011, and I believe it is time to update them with new editions.

[Elizabeth]

2.5

[Kimikimi]

Very informative, but to focused on the United States and Russia. I liked how they gave a discription of the book and also the censorship history.