Banned and Censored Media
Use this guide as a portal to banned and censored films, books, and other media.
The American Library Association (ALA) maintains a useful website of Banned & Challenged Books. It answers the questions such as to, "What is the difference between a challenge and a banning?" and "Why are books challenged?" It includes lists of banned book by author, by year, and by decade. There is also a link to statistics.
Each Year the ALA celebrates Banned Books Week:
"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States."
Lists compiled by the ALA:
Each Year the ALA celebrates Banned Books Week:
"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States."
Lists compiled by the ALA:
- 2012: This year, ALA celebrates 30 Years of Liberating Literature with this timeline.
- Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011. see also: Top Ten Challenged Books by Year (click on a year from2001-2011)
- Top 100 Challenged/Banned Books list for the years 2000 through 2009.
- Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century
- Most Frequently Challenged Books Written by Authors of Color 1990-1999
- 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: by decade
- A list of "Banned and Challenged Classics" held at the I.C. Library appears to the right.. The countries and places that banned the title are described on the followinging ALA website: Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course - Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.
- Number of Challenges by Year, Reason, Initiator & Institution (1990 - 2010)
Click on one of these subjects from out catalog to find books, ebooks and videos:
Also try a keyword search for banned OR censored.
- Books and reading--United States.
- Censorship United States
- Freedom of information--United States.
- Motion pictures--Censorship--United States
- Music--Censorship
- Prohibited Books
- Reportage literature, American
Also try a keyword search for banned OR censored.
- Censored: an annual compilation of censored stories
- Allan, K. (2006). Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Banned & Censored. (2000). [videorecording]. WinStar Home Entertainment. Includes 13 full-length, fully restored cartoons, made during the 1930s and 1940s, which were banned or censored by the Hayes Office.
- Black, G. D. (1994). Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge studies in the history of mass communications. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.
- Boyer, P. S. (2002). Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age. Print culture history in modern America (2nd ed.). Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Bleep! Censoring Rock and Rap Music. (1999). Contributions to the study of popular culture. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.
- Blecha, P. (2004). Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs. San Francisco: Backbeat Books.
- Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word. (2009). (1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperStudio.
- Dershowitz, A. M. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown.
- Doyle, R. P. (2010). Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. Chicago, Ill: American Library Association.
- Haight, A. L. (1978). Banned Books, 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D (4th ed.). New York: R. R. Bowker.
- Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression. (2006). San Francisco: City Lights Books.
- Jansen, S. C. (1991). Censorship: The Knot That Binds Power and Knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Johnson, T. (1997). Censored Screams: The British Ban on Hollywood Horror in the Thirties. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland.
- Levinson, N. (2003). Outspoken Free Speech Stories. Berkeley: University of California Press. This is an ebook and can be viewed online.
- Parker, A. M. (1997). Purifying America: Women, Cultural Reform, and Pro-Censorship Activism, 1873-1933. Women in American history. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Semonche, J. E. (2007). Censoring Sex: A Historical Journey Through American Media. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
- Sova, D. B. (2001). Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures. Facts on File library of world literature. New York: Facts On File.
- Sova, D. B. (2006). Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds. Facts on File library of world literature (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts On File.
- Tropiano, S. (2009). Obscene, Indecent, Immoral, and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned, and Controversial Films. New York: Limelight Editions. Prof. Tropiano teaches at Ithaca College's L.A. location.
- The United States of America V. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James Joyce: Documents and Commentary: A 50-Year Retrospective. (1984). Frederick, MD: University Publications of America.
- Wartzman, R. (2008). Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1st ed.). New York, NY: PublicAffairs.
Article Quick Search (EBSCO databases) by Subject:
- BANNED Films
- BOOK burning
- CENSORSHIP
- CHALLENGED books
- INTERNET censorship
- MASS media censorship
- PARENT participation in children's reading
- PROHIBITED books
- LISTA: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts Sample search: (banned or censored) and (books or media)
- Academic Search Premier Sample search: (banned or censored) and (books or media)
- JSTOR
Complete backfiles of core scholarly journals, searchable by journal or discipline. Files do not include the latest 3-5 years. The content is delivered as page images. - Project Muse
Full-text scholarly journals in the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Mathematics; Coverage varies by journal but generally only 2-3 current years.
- LexisNexis Academic
Full-text access to continuously updated news, law, and business information. Highlights: News: newswires, transcripts, regional, national/international news, & Gallup Polls; Legal: law review articles, federal case law, and federal/state codes; Business: company profiles, country profiles, and SEC filings; People: directories from the entertainment industry, elected officials, executives, politicians, and obituaries. Also has a section that includes full-text of several health newsletters and abstracts of articles in major medical journals.
- American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
- Association of American Publishers
- Freedom to Read Foundation (affiliate of the American Library Association)
- Index on Censorship
British based-site with news from the world of censorship, including reports on restrictions placed on journalists and different legal battles intended to secure the rights of journalists across the globe. There is also a journal called Index on Censorship. - Project Censored
Students and faculty from Sonoma State University track overlooked news that appears in independent journals and newsletters. An annual list of the top 25 censored stories are compiled.
- Definitions of Expression of Concern, Oral Complaint, Written Complaint, Public Attack, and Censorship from ALA.
- Donald A. Downs "Obscenity and Pornography" The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L. Hall. Oxford University Press. 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Ithaca College.
- Triplett, W. (2004, April 16). Broadcast indecency. CQ Researcher, 14, 321-344.
- Censorship. From: West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. Vol. 7. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005. p296. Word Count: 152.
- Obscenity. From: West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. Vol. 7. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005. p296. Word Count: 152.
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