Fantastic research, James. You are a must-read on The Free Press. This is yet another case of leftist projection. They control all the libraries, schools, and bookstores. That allows them to indoctrinate kids into Red Guards with Progressive literature, while never exposing them to other perspectives. The moment any parents or conservatives push back on what their kids are being taught like sexual material, the left screams "book banning". Barnes & Noble displays a "banned book" section without understanding the irony. Another disturbing trend has emerged where elected school board members are sworn in on "banned books" that include graphic pornography like "Gender Queer": https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/14/fairfax-county-school-board-sworn-in-explicit-books/
While I take all the points made here, this is a hardly a scientific endeavor. While the libraries may stock certain books (and we dont know the geographic distribution--could be spread over both red and blue states), what we would want to know are the books being checked out and read. I doubt many are. If that is indeed the case, yes, we have a librarian problem. But we likelier have a TikTok problem--the main source for knowledge kids obtain.
The fact that Thomas Sowell’s books aren’t available in these school libraries is almost criminal. Students don’t need to agree with him but, at the very least, they would see how cogent arguments are made based on actual evidence.
"While Dreams from My Father, the memoir by former Democratic president Barack Obama, is found in 75 percent of sampled districts, and Becoming by his wife Michelle is found in 65 percent, memoirs by Republican politicians Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, and Ron DeSantis are essentially nowhere to be found."
I think this is an apples-to-oranges comparison: that is, things that are very much alike (round, fruit) but also different in significant ways.
Barack Obama was president for eight years, and Mrs. Obama was - media being what it is - a major figure. Their newsworthiness (edit: or historical significance) was increased by their being the first black couple in the White House. On the other hand, none of the Republican figures mentioned has been president. Some, such as Ramaswamy and Pompeo, haven't been in any elective office.
This is not an argument against Mr. Fishback's thesis. I just think this particular example doesn't add much weight.
Back in the Bush administration, I was approached by someone from the Bush team as a possible presidential appointment to a national library council -- because, as I was told, they were having a lot of trouble finding any Republican librarians at all. It came to nothing, but there was clearly a problem even then. As a working librarian now, however, I'd move the analysis further upstream, especially to the review sources that most librarians use to select books, which are now all unabashedly progressive. Hornbook was probably the last to give in, but Choice (for academic libraries), School Library Journal, and especially Booklist -- the journals that dictate 90% of book selection for libraries -- make no effort to hide their partisanship. For children's books the only mainstream exception I can think of is Meghan Cox Gurdon's review column in the WSJ. Book jobbers (suppliers to libraries) are another place to look: which books do they stock and recommend? And then, of course, publishers themselves. It is because there is an entire library ecosystem -- a severely biased one --, in which individual school districts, libraries, and librarians are probably the least consequential component, that I do not take complaints of censorship at that local or even state level very seriously.
This isn’t just a library problem or an Ivy League college problem. Looking at this list of books, as someone who has a degree from Hunter college and Brooklyn college, both City University of New York, I can say that I was familiar and had to read most/all authors on the progressive list, and was never assigned any reading from the conservative list. The brainwashing happens at city colleges too.
The answer is the librarian’s have a stated mission to push Marxists ideas. This is a concerted effort. They are in every education institution. Not to be too dramatic but I find it dystopian and creepy like invasion of pod people.
A couple of points -- first the definition of a 'banned book' in the US is not what most people consider it to be -- it is merely a 'challenged' book. In other words, someone put in a formal complaint about it.
Second, as this essay points out 'shadow banning' (ie the not stocking of books from a certain viewpoint or indeed because an author holds certain political views) is a problem both in the US and in the UK. This is a 1953 article on the difference between 'selection and censorship' and is well worth a read. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection
The answer to both is more books -- people should actively consider requesting public libraries to stock books that they want to read or consider on the 'shadow banned' list. It is a positive, not negative thing to request a library stock certain books to maintain its impartiality. It is something members of the Women's Rights Network in the UK have been attempting to do recently -- request Gender Critical books from their local library, a project which took on new urgency after it emerged the libraries in North Yorkshire had delisted books after a single person complained.
Hooray! I was a Christian-university librarian for 20+ years (w MA & PhD but no library degree) and grew to despise the leftist ALA’s monopoly on library control thru its triple threats of accreditation (it alone accredits US library schools; and nearly all librarian job requirements include “must have MLIS or equivalent from an ALA-accredited program”), privileged publication (what an advantage for sales to have easy access to the institutions and professionals it alone can accredit!), and _de facto_ union influence on librarians and library leadership by the ‘must-go-to’ regional & national meetings and membership. I haven’t researched the matter but think the ALA may be unique in its unchallenged ‘Trade Privilege.’
I looked at ALA recommendations esp. for the YA (young adult) category — usually left-leaning and assertively pro-LGBTQIA+ and anti-traditional sexual morality — and concluded the ALA and its likes were sold out to the Left.
I urge every school district and public library system who do in fact believe in the marketplace of ideas and fair debate to sever ties with the ALA and support a sane alternative.
Also, would anyone research whether it has become an unjust monopoly?
Almost every Democrat trope is a lie. From Republican book banning to George Floyd being murdered by Chauvin, a racist cop.
Lying is in DNA of the DNC. Just like every leftist, repressive organization. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Bill Ivey's campaign memo was Orwellian but unsurprising. Oh, and Jussie Smolett was set upon by two MAGA thugs on a frigid Chicago early morning. Why does anyone believe these pissant Pinocchios?
As James shows, this isn't about book bans, it's about curation. In this case, we see quite a bit of evidence that books are curated with a political bias. To go a step further, the hysteria about book bans is actually a hysteria about outside meddling in this book curation, which is occurring because the people entrusted with it failed to apply age appropriateness standards to any text relating to LGBT issues. This is the direct result of the DEI environment and the eagerness to increase the number of LGBT books, even though books about sexual preference are going to be mostly about sex. It's also easy to imagine librarians fearing reprisals if they passed over a book with graphic sexual content if it was an LGBT book. And so, this psychosis results in putting graphic sexual depictions in school libraries, something virtually everyone agrees is age inappropriate.
Great insight. Can someone at TFP let Nellie know - sometimes it’s hard to tell from her TGIF’s comments on this subject if she’s in on the joke re: “book bans”
The comments are great. All opinions are presented which is the goal. One commenter made the most cogent point to me though. Do kids actually read at all? The future for tolerance can’t be good if Tik Tok is the source of information.
I’m the rare public librarian who sympathizes with the article, but something else bothered me. While the profession presses a social agenda, little attention is given to the fact that SO MUCH OF THE GOOD SHIT is now behind a paywall on Substack. This as remaining print magazines continue to be culled from public library shelves.
Regarding some of those books, consider reversing the races. Would a book called "Black Rage" be even published today, let alone put in a school library? We're allowing naked, unabashed racism to proliferate and build up a body of hatred among youth, instead of trying to mitigate and reduce conflict and move towards a world where we can get along with each other. We're heading towards a much less friendly world than the world we came from -- you can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Same with just the overall political polarization. Civil strife and conflict is coming at us really fast.
Interlibrary loan, Libby, and Hoopla. Ways to get books that your public library physically doesn’t have. I was able to find many of the conservative thinkers listed in the article in Libby which I get access to free with my library card.
I don’t like librarians pushing ideological agendas, as I know some do, and public school libraries should have different collecting priorities than public libraries, but it’s a broad brush to say that all libraries are part of the liberal elite. I worked at a university library for a decade and was hounded by the university’s DEI concerns. Now I work at a small town public library where our biggest concern is using our extremely limited resources to create a space for the community to come together. We had 70 toddlers at story time yesterday to read books about snow. Hardly a left-wing propaganda machine.
Fantastic research, James. You are a must-read on The Free Press. This is yet another case of leftist projection. They control all the libraries, schools, and bookstores. That allows them to indoctrinate kids into Red Guards with Progressive literature, while never exposing them to other perspectives. The moment any parents or conservatives push back on what their kids are being taught like sexual material, the left screams "book banning". Barnes & Noble displays a "banned book" section without understanding the irony. Another disturbing trend has emerged where elected school board members are sworn in on "banned books" that include graphic pornography like "Gender Queer": https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/14/fairfax-county-school-board-sworn-in-explicit-books/
The endgame of leftist censorship is cultural revolution and destruction of society: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/founding-fathers-statues-monuments-removed
While I take all the points made here, this is a hardly a scientific endeavor. While the libraries may stock certain books (and we dont know the geographic distribution--could be spread over both red and blue states), what we would want to know are the books being checked out and read. I doubt many are. If that is indeed the case, yes, we have a librarian problem. But we likelier have a TikTok problem--the main source for knowledge kids obtain.
The fact that Thomas Sowell’s books aren’t available in these school libraries is almost criminal. Students don’t need to agree with him but, at the very least, they would see how cogent arguments are made based on actual evidence.
"While Dreams from My Father, the memoir by former Democratic president Barack Obama, is found in 75 percent of sampled districts, and Becoming by his wife Michelle is found in 65 percent, memoirs by Republican politicians Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, and Ron DeSantis are essentially nowhere to be found."
I think this is an apples-to-oranges comparison: that is, things that are very much alike (round, fruit) but also different in significant ways.
Barack Obama was president for eight years, and Mrs. Obama was - media being what it is - a major figure. Their newsworthiness (edit: or historical significance) was increased by their being the first black couple in the White House. On the other hand, none of the Republican figures mentioned has been president. Some, such as Ramaswamy and Pompeo, haven't been in any elective office.
This is not an argument against Mr. Fishback's thesis. I just think this particular example doesn't add much weight.
Back in the Bush administration, I was approached by someone from the Bush team as a possible presidential appointment to a national library council -- because, as I was told, they were having a lot of trouble finding any Republican librarians at all. It came to nothing, but there was clearly a problem even then. As a working librarian now, however, I'd move the analysis further upstream, especially to the review sources that most librarians use to select books, which are now all unabashedly progressive. Hornbook was probably the last to give in, but Choice (for academic libraries), School Library Journal, and especially Booklist -- the journals that dictate 90% of book selection for libraries -- make no effort to hide their partisanship. For children's books the only mainstream exception I can think of is Meghan Cox Gurdon's review column in the WSJ. Book jobbers (suppliers to libraries) are another place to look: which books do they stock and recommend? And then, of course, publishers themselves. It is because there is an entire library ecosystem -- a severely biased one --, in which individual school districts, libraries, and librarians are probably the least consequential component, that I do not take complaints of censorship at that local or even state level very seriously.
This isn’t just a library problem or an Ivy League college problem. Looking at this list of books, as someone who has a degree from Hunter college and Brooklyn college, both City University of New York, I can say that I was familiar and had to read most/all authors on the progressive list, and was never assigned any reading from the conservative list. The brainwashing happens at city colleges too.
The answer is the librarian’s have a stated mission to push Marxists ideas. This is a concerted effort. They are in every education institution. Not to be too dramatic but I find it dystopian and creepy like invasion of pod people.
Excellent article.
A couple of points -- first the definition of a 'banned book' in the US is not what most people consider it to be -- it is merely a 'challenged' book. In other words, someone put in a formal complaint about it.
Second, as this essay points out 'shadow banning' (ie the not stocking of books from a certain viewpoint or indeed because an author holds certain political views) is a problem both in the US and in the UK. This is a 1953 article on the difference between 'selection and censorship' and is well worth a read. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection
The answer to both is more books -- people should actively consider requesting public libraries to stock books that they want to read or consider on the 'shadow banned' list. It is a positive, not negative thing to request a library stock certain books to maintain its impartiality. It is something members of the Women's Rights Network in the UK have been attempting to do recently -- request Gender Critical books from their local library, a project which took on new urgency after it emerged the libraries in North Yorkshire had delisted books after a single person complained.
The ALA fully supports the Freedom to Read statement which maintains the need for a library to be comprehensive and impartial (ie carrying both sides of an argument) https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement
Thus, if you consider this is happening, start requesting the books and ensuring that censorship has no place in the public library system.
The answer is always more books, not fewer imho.
Hooray! I was a Christian-university librarian for 20+ years (w MA & PhD but no library degree) and grew to despise the leftist ALA’s monopoly on library control thru its triple threats of accreditation (it alone accredits US library schools; and nearly all librarian job requirements include “must have MLIS or equivalent from an ALA-accredited program”), privileged publication (what an advantage for sales to have easy access to the institutions and professionals it alone can accredit!), and _de facto_ union influence on librarians and library leadership by the ‘must-go-to’ regional & national meetings and membership. I haven’t researched the matter but think the ALA may be unique in its unchallenged ‘Trade Privilege.’
I looked at ALA recommendations esp. for the YA (young adult) category — usually left-leaning and assertively pro-LGBTQIA+ and anti-traditional sexual morality — and concluded the ALA and its likes were sold out to the Left.
I urge every school district and public library system who do in fact believe in the marketplace of ideas and fair debate to sever ties with the ALA and support a sane alternative.
Also, would anyone research whether it has become an unjust monopoly?
Almost every Democrat trope is a lie. From Republican book banning to George Floyd being murdered by Chauvin, a racist cop.
Lying is in DNA of the DNC. Just like every leftist, repressive organization. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Bill Ivey's campaign memo was Orwellian but unsurprising. Oh, and Jussie Smolett was set upon by two MAGA thugs on a frigid Chicago early morning. Why does anyone believe these pissant Pinocchios?
As James shows, this isn't about book bans, it's about curation. In this case, we see quite a bit of evidence that books are curated with a political bias. To go a step further, the hysteria about book bans is actually a hysteria about outside meddling in this book curation, which is occurring because the people entrusted with it failed to apply age appropriateness standards to any text relating to LGBT issues. This is the direct result of the DEI environment and the eagerness to increase the number of LGBT books, even though books about sexual preference are going to be mostly about sex. It's also easy to imagine librarians fearing reprisals if they passed over a book with graphic sexual content if it was an LGBT book. And so, this psychosis results in putting graphic sexual depictions in school libraries, something virtually everyone agrees is age inappropriate.
Great insight. Can someone at TFP let Nellie know - sometimes it’s hard to tell from her TGIF’s comments on this subject if she’s in on the joke re: “book bans”
The comments are great. All opinions are presented which is the goal. One commenter made the most cogent point to me though. Do kids actually read at all? The future for tolerance can’t be good if Tik Tok is the source of information.
I’m the rare public librarian who sympathizes with the article, but something else bothered me. While the profession presses a social agenda, little attention is given to the fact that SO MUCH OF THE GOOD SHIT is now behind a paywall on Substack. This as remaining print magazines continue to be culled from public library shelves.
Regarding some of those books, consider reversing the races. Would a book called "Black Rage" be even published today, let alone put in a school library? We're allowing naked, unabashed racism to proliferate and build up a body of hatred among youth, instead of trying to mitigate and reduce conflict and move towards a world where we can get along with each other. We're heading towards a much less friendly world than the world we came from -- you can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Same with just the overall political polarization. Civil strife and conflict is coming at us really fast.
Interlibrary loan, Libby, and Hoopla. Ways to get books that your public library physically doesn’t have. I was able to find many of the conservative thinkers listed in the article in Libby which I get access to free with my library card.
I don’t like librarians pushing ideological agendas, as I know some do, and public school libraries should have different collecting priorities than public libraries, but it’s a broad brush to say that all libraries are part of the liberal elite. I worked at a university library for a decade and was hounded by the university’s DEI concerns. Now I work at a small town public library where our biggest concern is using our extremely limited resources to create a space for the community to come together. We had 70 toddlers at story time yesterday to read books about snow. Hardly a left-wing propaganda machine.