Censored 2008: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006-07 (Censored)
from Seven Stories Press
"Carefully orchestrated. . . . This well-researched work is highly recommended for most libraries."-Library Journal (starred review)
"Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this collection of suppressed stories allows us."-The San Diego Review
"Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."-Los Angeles Times
The best-selling Censored series highlights the year's twenty-five most important underreported news stories, alerting readers to negligence of corporate media and the resurgence of alternative media.
Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, is an associate professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. He is known for his pieces in the alternative press and independent newspapers nationwide, such as Z Magazine and Social Policy.
Project Censored, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, has as its principal objective the advocacy for and protection of First Amendment rights and the freedom of information in the United States.
Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History
by Lucien X. Polastron
from Inner Traditions
A historical survey of the destruction of knowledge from ancient Babylon and China to modern times
• Includes the three separate destructions of the Library of Alexandria as well as many equally significant collections around the world
• Examines the causes of violence directed at repositories of knowledge
• Looks at the dangers posed by digitalization of books to the free availability of knowledge in the future
Hebrew, Hindu, Nordic, and Islamic traditions share the belief of a vast library existing before the creation of the world. The Vedas say that this library predated the creator’s creation of himself. Yet, almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. The reasons cited for this are many: educated people are much harder to govern, and some proclaim that only the illiterate can save the world. There are also great destructions brought about by weather, worms, and even the paranoia of the library’s owner.
Books on Fire traces the history of this perpetual destruction from the burning of the great library of Alexandria (on three separate occasions) and the libraries of the Chinese Qing Dynasty to more modern catastrophic losses such as those witnessed in Nazi-occupied Europe and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The author examines the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. His investigation also reveals a new danger facing libraries today with the digitalization of books threatening both the existence of the physical paper book and the very idea of reading for free. The promise of an absolute library offered by the computer may well turn out to equal the worst nightmares of Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell.
Books on Fire received the 2004 Société des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.
120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature
by Nicholas J. Karolides
from Checkmark Books
Conversations With Salman Rushdie (Literary Conversations Series)
by Salman Rushdie
from University Press of Mississippi
Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration
by Thomas Doherty
from Columbia University Press
From 1934 to 1954 Joseph I. Breen, a media-savvy Victorian Irishman, reigned over the Production Code Administration, the Hollywood office tasked with censoring the American screen. Though little known outside the ranks of the studio system, this former journalist and public relations agent was one of the most powerful men in the motion picture industry. As enforcer of the puritanical Production Code, Breen dictated "final cut" over more movies than anyone in the history of American cinema. His editorial decisions profoundly influenced the images and values projected by Hollywood during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.
Cultural historian Thomas Doherty tells the absorbing story of Breen's ascent to power and the widespread effects of his reign. Breen vetted story lines, blue-penciled dialogue, and excised footage (a process that came to be known as "Breening") to fit the demands of his strict moral framework. Empowered by industry insiders and millions of like-minded Catholics who supported his missionary zeal, Breen strove to protect innocent souls from the temptations beckoning from the motion picture screen.
There were few elements of cinematic production beyond Breen's reach& mdash;he oversaw the editing of A-list feature films, low-budget B movies, short subjects, previews of coming attractions, and even cartoons. Populated by a colorful cast of characters, including Catholic priests, Jewish moguls, visionary auteurs, hardnosed journalists, and bluenose agitators, Doherty's insightful, behind-the-scenes portrait brings a tumultuous era& mdash;and an individual both feared and admired& mdash;to vivid life.
Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age (Print Culture History in Modern America)
by Paul S. Boyer
from University of Wisconsin Press
The first edition of Purity in Printdocumented book censorship in America from the 1870s to the 1930s, embedding it within the larger social and cultural history of the time. This second edition adds two new chapters that carry this history forward to the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship
by J. M. Coetzee
from University Of Chicago Press
In this collection of eight essays, South African novelist J. M. Coetzee examines the complexities of censorship beyond the model of villainous censor and victimized artist. Having lived in a police state, Coetzee's experience is that "the same censors patrol the boundaries of both politics and esthetics." By contrast, in the United States, the way for artists to get away with representations that some find offensive or forbidden is to argue that their work has some political worth. Though Coetzee admits he doesn't know what to think of artists who "break taboos and yet claim protection of the law," he remains committed to free speech, conscious of how easily oppressive righteousness can rear its viscous head.
J. M. Coetzee presents a coherent, unorthodox analysis of censorship from the perspective of one who has lived and worked under its shadow. The essays collected here attempt to understand the passion that plays itself out in acts of silencing and censoring. He argues that a destructive dynamic of belligerence and escalation tends to overtake the rivals in any field ruled by censorship.
From Osip Mandelstam commanded to compose an ode in praise of Stalin, to Breyten Breytenbach writing poems under and for the eyes of his prison guards, to Aleksander Solzhenitsyn engaging in a trial of wits with the organs of the Soviet state, Giving Offense focuses on the ways authors have historically responded to censorship. It also analyzes the arguments of Catharine MacKinnon for the suppression of pornography and traces the operations of the old South African censorship system.
"The most impressive feature of Coetzee's essays, besides his ear for language, is his coolheadedness. He can dissect repugnant notions and analyze volatile emotions with enviable poise."—Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"Those looking for simple, ringing denunciations of censorship's evils will be disappointed. Coetzee explicitly rejects such noble tritenesses. Instead . . . he pursues censorship's deeper, more fickle meanings and unmeanings."—Kirkus Reviews
"These erudite essays form a powerful, bracing criticism of censorship in its many guises."—Publishers Weekly
"Giving Offense gets its incisive message across clearly, even when Coetzee is dealing with such murky theorists as Bakhtin, Lacan, Foucault, and René; Girard. Coetzee has a light, wry sense of humor."—Bill Marx, Hungry Mind Review
"An extraordinary collection of essays."—Martha Bayles, New York Times Book Review
"A disturbing and illuminating moral expedition."—Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review
50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know, Volume 2
by Russ Kick
from The Disinformation Company
Ever feel like you're being kept in the dark? Do you feel like the facts and history you rely on might not be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but?
Just in time for 2004's Christmas parties and other holiday get-togethers, Russ Kick delivers a second round of stunning information, forgotten facts and hidden history. The first volume was the gift to give and get for the holiday season of 2003; surprising, shocking and controversial, the "things" in Volume 2 will make 2004's holiday parties sizzle with debate over Kick's revelations-all thoroughly researched and documented.
Sized for quick reference, filled with facts, illustrations, and graphic evidence of lies and misrepresentations, 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know-Volume 2 presents the vital, often omitted details on human health hazards, government lies, and secret history and warfare excised from your schoolbooks and nightly news reports.
Russ Kick and The Disinformation Company have published five successful books together since 2001. Each one has become a bestseller, establishing Russ as the leader in gathering and disseminating the hidden history, forgotten facts, secret stories and covert cover-ups that "they" don't want you to know!
Russ Kick is the editor of Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies; Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies; and You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths. He is the author of 50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know and The Disinformation Book of Lists.
Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds: Banned Books
by Nicholas J. Karolides
from Facts on File
Movie Censorship And American Culture
from University of Massachusetts Press
From the earliest days of public outrage over "indecent" nickelodeon shows, Americans have worried about the power of the movies. The eleven essays in this book examine nearly a century of struggle over cinematic representations of sex, crime, violence, religion, race, and ethnicity, revealing that the effort to regulate the screen has reflected deep social and cultural schisms. In addition to the editor, contributors include Daniel Czitrom, Marybeth Hamilton, Garth Jowett, Charles Lyons, Richard Maltby, Charles Musser, Alison M. Parker, Charlene Regester, Ruth Vasey, and Stephen Vaughn. Together they make it clear that censoring the movies is more than just a reflex against "indecency," however defined. Whether censorship protects the vulnerable or suppresses the creative, it is part of a broader culture war that breaks out recurrently as Americans try to come to terms with the market, the state, and the plural society in which they live.
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