Banning Books in America

Samuel Cohen is Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri, USA, where he teaches a course on banned books. He is the author of After the End of History: American Fiction in the 1990s (Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2010) and co-editor of The Legacy of David Foster Wallace (2012) and The Clash Takes on the World (Bloomsbury, 2017). He is series editor of The New American Canon: The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture.

• IntroductionSamuel Cohen (University of Missouri, USA)Part. 1: Writers on Book Banning1. The WoodcuttersLydia Millet2. Jane Smiley on What It’s Like to Have Your Book BannedTai Caputo (Iowa City High School, USA)3. Keep Kids ReadingCarol Weston4. From U.S.!: A NovelChris Bachelder Part 2. Arguments About Book Banning 5. Why Americans Must Speak Up to Defend University AutonomyJeremy Young and Jacqueline Allain (PEN America)6. From the Word to the WorldEmily Drabinski (American Library Association)7. Is It Ever Ok to Ban a Book?Leonard Cassuto (Fordham University, USA)8. Reading Howl across the Iron Curtain, or Why Our Cold War Ideas About Banned Books May No Longer be HelpingBrian Goodman (Arizona State University, USA)9. Banning the EnlightenmentAaron Santesso (Georgia Tech, USA)10. Why It’s Okay to Call It a BanEmily Harris (Annie’s Foundation)Part 3: Teachers on Book Banning11. "Amputate the Problem, Band-Aid the Solution": Censoring Toni MorrisonAmardeep Singh (Lehigh University, USA)12. Banned Books in Transnational Contexts: Censorship in School Curricula in Wisconsin and IndiaLopamudra Basu (University of Wisconsin – Stout, USA)13. Illiberal EducationAnnie Abrams (The Bronx High School of Science, USA)14. A Banned Books Course Syllabus with Historical Notes, Unfortunate Puns, and Books, Lots of BooksSamuel Cohen (University of Missouri, USA)AcknowledgmentsNotes on ContributorsBibliographyIndex

By including so many perspectives, the volume gives a vitally expansive sense of what, exactly, we mean when we say ‘book ban.’