I’m with the Banned: The Unseen History of Reading Banned Books

Abstract

Even in the mid 2020s, our understanding of reading is inadequate. It complicated, often contradictory history is neglected. Myths of literacy dominate despite almost one half century of critical revisionism, prompted in part by my own research. This essay interrelates book banning, debates about patterns of reading and reading instruction, and unseen reading of “great” and banned books by people without higher education. Its intention is to raise more questions and provoke more inquiries.