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Banned Books Week Handbook: Books on Free Speech
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Books on Free Speech

Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression
Edited by Robert Atkins and Svetlana Mintcheva
New Press (April 15, 2006), ISBN: 1595580506

In Censoring Culture, the nationally known author of the ArtSpeak books and the head of the National Coalition Against Censorship's Arts Program bring together the latest thinking from art historians, cultural theorists, legal scholars, and psychoanalysts, as well as first-person accounts by artists and advocates, to give us a comprehensive understanding of censorship in a new century.



Burning Books by Haig Bosmajian
McFarland & Company, Inc. (March 21, 2006), ISBN: 0786422084

This work provides a detailed account of book burning worldwide over the past 2000 years. (Book burning is meant literally, not as a figurative reference to book banning.) The book burners are identified, along with the works they deliberately set aflame.



Potentially Harmful: The Art of American Censorship
By Cathy Byrd, Nina Felshin and Lisa Kincheloe
Georgia State University (August 15, 2006), ISBN: 0977689409

This survey of censorship from 1970 to the present outlines the history of a significant ongoing risk for contemporary artists. Its selection of controversial art from the last three decades assembles full-page images of works from 51 artists.  It offers illustrated critical texts examining the history and current state of controversial art in the U.S.



Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century: How Terrorism, Governments, And Culture Wars Impact Free Speech
Edited by Evan Gerstmann and Matthew J. Streb
Stanford University Press (August 30, 2006), ISBN: 0804754446

This volume explores the state of academic freedom in the United States and abroad. What impact have the attacks of September 11th and the ensuing war on terrorism had on free speech, access to information, government funding of the sciences, and other cornerstones of freedom of inquiry at American universities?



First Freedoms : A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights in America
By Charles C. Haynes, Sam Chaltain and Susan M. Glisson
Oxford University Press (July 4, 2006), ISBN: 0195157508

A rich and engaging exploration of the documents that illustrate the origins and development of First Amendment freedoms in American history. Each document is introduced by a historical essay and reproduced in facsimile. Incorporating nearly 40 documents and spanning more than 300 years.



Burning Books and Leveling Libraries : Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction by Rebecca Knuth
Praeger Publishers (May 30, 2006), ISBN: 0275990079

Extremists of all stripes--through terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass violence--are also responsible for widespread cultural destruction, as she demonstrates in this new book. Whether the product of passion or of a cool-headed decision to use ideas to rationalize excess, the decimation of the world's libraries has occurred throughout the 20th century, and there is no end in sight. Cultural destruction is, therefore, of increasing concern to the library community, educators, human rights and civil rights activists, and caring citizens.



The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture
By Frederick S. Lane
Prometheus Books (August 2006), ISBN: 1591024277

First Amendment and emerging technology specialist Frederick S. Lane examines America’s changing attitudes toward decency and the politics of decency in this timely book. He takes a strong and unequivocal position that it is inappropriate and dangerous for the government to try to regulate morality.  Including interviews with politicians, religious leaders, entertainers, and other individuals across the spectrum of American culture, this compelling book is essential reading for understanding one of the most fiercely debated social issues of our nation.

 



All Governments Lie : The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone (Hardcover) by Myra MacPherson
Scribner (August 29, 2006), ISBN: 0684807130

Boasting equal parts scholarship and style, All Governments Lie is a highly readable, groundbreaking, and timely look at I. F. Stone -- one of America's most independent and revered journalists, whose work carries the same immediacy it did a half century ago, highlighting the ever-present need for dissenting voices.


For more titles on free expression, go to the First Amendment Bookshelf.

Movies on Free Speech

Damned in the USA: This documentary focuses on censorship controversies in America involving pornography, art and blasphemy.

Dissent: The ACLU Freedom Files: Freedom of speech is a given in America, right? Not if you're Muslim hip-hop poet Amir Sulaiman, or groups of protesters at the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2004.

Jailed for Their Words This powerful, hour-long documentary traces the dramatic story of Montana's draconian WWI sedition law, the harshest law of its kind in the nation, and the model for a U.S. law passed shortly after.

Skokie:  This 1981 television movie directed by Herbert Wise, based on the real life National Socialist Party of America Controversy of Skokie, Illinois.

Surveillance:
The ACLU Freedom Files: From warrantless wiretapping of phone calls and monitoring of emails to the creation of a national identity card, the government is using "national security" as a justification for encroaching on our right to privacy and freedoms of speech and association. But the initiatives are stirring intense opposition from many groups across the political spectrum.

This Film is Not Yet Rated: This film is an independent documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture.

Youth Speak:
The ACLU Freedom Files: Young people in America are often treated as if the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to them. In this episode of The Freedom Files, you’ll meet young people whose rights were violated and who fought back.


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