1. Censorship: History and Today
Presented to ISTC 615 by Teresa Adams, Natalie Avallone, and Lisa Venker

2. SANTO DOMINGO Y LOS ALBIGENSES by Pedro Berruguete
Books have been burned since the beginning of recorded history to prevent the spread of ideas that are deemed dangerous or controversial by those in power. When books were handwritten and therefore rare, this was a particularly effective tool but is now primarily a symbolic gesture.

3. From 1559 to 1964 the
Vatican published an index listing works that should not be read in whole or part by Catholics. Religion continues to be a primary source of book challenges and banning.

4. Even works by such classic authors as Chaucer and Shakespeare have been the target of attack either by banning, modifying or expurgating “offensive material.” The Family Shakespeare by Thomas Bowdler actually gave rise to the term, bowdlerize, which means to censor or edit.

5. "As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself." -John Milton Areopagitica

6. The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

7. The Congress hereby finds and declares- that a high civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone but must give full value and support to the other great branches of man's scholarly and cultural activities in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.
-Act of Congress establishing the National Endowments for the Humanities and the Arts, 1965

8. Most frequently challenged books of 2007 according to the ALA:
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
TTYL by Lauren Myracle
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

9. Some commonly cited reasons a book is challenged or banned, according to the ALA include:
Sexually explicit material or sex education
Religious viewpoint: atheism, homosexuality, witchcraft and magic, etc.
Offensive language: obscene, anti-ethnic or racist
Violence
Unsuited to age group
Challenges authority figures
Confuses fantasy with reality

10. BOOK AND RECORD BURNING MONTICELLO, MINNESOTA Organized by three fundamentalist ministers, 1982
“[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume

11. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
We all know that books burn – yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory…
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

12. Sources used in PowerPoint:
“Bonfire of the Liberties.” The Humanities Interactive. 30 November
“Frequently Challenged Books.” American Library Association November