Censorship
 Think of a book or movie that has influenced
you in some way
 What would be lost if no one could ever read
the book or see the movie again?
What is Censorship?
Types of censorship
 Challenges to material
 Banning of material
 Destroying material
Where does censorship take
place?
 Schools: textbooks, reading material
 Libraries
?
Reasons for Censorship
 Family values
 Religion
 Political views
General Principles for the
Compilation of Blacklists
1933-1939
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Literature that undermines way of thinking & living
Predominantly Jewish authors
“Cleansing” should be done in stages
Materials categorized in 3 groups:



Group 1 to be destroyed
Group 2 to be put into Poison Cabinet
Group 3 requires future assessment to be put into 1 or 2
 Replacement with new literature
Evaluation Guidelines
1935
 Works of traitors, emigrants, anyone who attacks
the “new” Germany
 Marxism, Communism, Bolshevism
 Liberal, democratic tendencies and attitudes
 All historical works denigrating German culture or
racial and structural order of Germany
 Philosophical and social works dealing with false
science of Darwinism or Monism
Evaluation Guidelines, cont.
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Decadent, bloodless, or constructivist art
Writings on sexuality or sex education
Decadent writings of middle class urban society
All literature by Jewish authors
All entertainment literature that depicts life in
superficial, unrealistic manner based on upper class
view of life
 All literature that ridicules, belittles Christianity
“When Books Burn”, Univ. of Arizona
Germany, 1932-1939
 By 1934 over 40 agencies involved with
banning of books
 Those agencies compiled lists of 4100
publications to be banned
Top 10 Challenged
Books in U.S.
1990-2000
1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya
Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain
Challenged books, cont.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine
Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom
(based on 6,364 reported challenges)
Reasons for Challenges
1999-2000
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Sexually explicit challenges (1,607)
Offensive language (1,427)
Unsuitable for age group (1,256)
Occult theme or promoting Satanism (842)
Violent (737)
Homosexual theme/promoting homosexuality (515)
Promoting a religious viewpoint (419)
Reasons, cont.
 Nudity (317)
 Racism (267)
 Sex education (224)
 Anti-family (202)
Penn Township, PA
What was burned?
 Disney videos: Hercules, Pinocchio, Aladdin
 Ace Ventura
 The Lost World
 The Complete Short Stories of Ernest
Hemingway
 Bruce Springsteen CD’s
 Harry Potter
When is censorship justified?
Additional Reading
 American Library Association Office of Intellectual
Freedom: http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/
 The Censorship Pages:
http://www.booksatoz.com/censorship/
 Book Burning:
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bookburning.html
 When Books Burn (Germany, 1932-39):
http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/images/burnedbooks
/documents.htm