Book Banning in 21st-Century America - (Beta Phi Mu Scholars) 2nd Edition by Emily J M Knox (Hardcover)

About the Book

Based on 25 contemporary book challenge cases in schools and public libraries across the United States, this book argues that understanding contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, is vital to understanding why people attempt to censor books in public institutions.

Book Synopsis

With book banning increasing around America, this book breaks down how and why contemporary reading practices can lead to censorship.
Requests for the redaction, removal, relocation, and restriction of books - also known as challenges - have markedly increased in the 2020s. Book Banning in 21st-Century America examines 25 contemporary cases of book challenges in schools and public libraries across the United States, demonstrating the significance of contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, in understanding why some attempt to censor books in public institutions.

What does it mean to read a text? How do readers construct their own ideas about what constitutes "appropriate" reading materials? This book focuses on the why of censorship and posits that many censorship behaviors and practices, such as challenging books and targeting public libraries and schools, are intimately tied to the challenger's understanding of the practice of reading and its effects on character development and behavior. It discusses reading as an evolving social practice that encompasses different physical modalities and interpretive strategies.

Review Quotes

"Emily Knox's book has become essential for understanding the evolving landscape of book challenges, a landscape that now includes higher education and private business. While the core justifications for restricting access remain consistent, in this edition, Knox illuminates how today's challengers increasingly target not just individual titles but the very institutions that house them, and the cultural contexts they reflect. By analyzing the challenger's discourse within theoretical frameworks, Knox reveals both the continuity in censorship arguments and the fundamental shift in how these challenges thrive in our present-day. This work provides crucial insights for a profession facing unprecedented institutional and cultural attacks, offering both scholarly depth and practical understanding for information professionals navigating a hostile new terrain." --Lucy Santos Green, Professor and Director, School of Library and Information Science, The University of Iowa

"Refreshingly not polarizing! Knox offers a good-faith book examining the practice of reading and real-world censorship. It's expertly researched and painstakingly written with fairness top of mind. The audience for this disciplined author is from all sides!" --Toni Samek, Scholar-in-residence, Centre for Free Expression, Toronto Metropolitan University

"Knox's book is a masterful, insightful analysis of the motivations behind book banning, using challengers' own words. With this context, censorship opponents can better advocate for libraries and schools." --Shannon M. Oltmann, PhD, Associate Dean and Director, School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University

Emily Knox's book has become essential for understanding the evolving landscape of book challenges, a landscape that now includes higher education and private business. While the core justifications for restricting access remain consistent, in this edition, Knox illuminates how today's challengers increasingly target not just individual titles but the very institutions that house them, and the cultural contexts they reflect. By analyzing the challenger's discourse within theoretical frameworks, Knox reveals both the continuity in censorship arguments and the fundamental shift in how these challenges thrive in our present-day. This work provides crucial insights for a profession facing unprecedented institutional and cultural attacks, offering both scholarly depth and practical understanding for information professionals navigating a hostile new terrain.

Knox's book is a masterful, insightful analysis of the motivations behind book banning, using challengers' own words. With this context, censorship opponents can better advocate for libraries and schools.

Refreshingly not polarizing! Knox offers a good-faith book examining the practice of reading and real-world censorship. It's expertly researched and painstakingly written with fairness top of mind. The audience for this disciplined author is from all sides!

About the Author

Emily Knox is a professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics and policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. She is also a member of the Mapping Information Access research team.

Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars' Series. Her most recent book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. Emily's articles have been published in the Library Quarterly, Library and Information Science Research, and Open Information Science. Emily serves on the board of National Coalition Against Censorship and is the editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.