Freedom of Speech: Reflections in Art and Popular Culture. By Patricia L. Dooley. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 166 p. $37.00 (ISBN 978-1-4408-4339-6). E-book available (978-1-4408-4340-2), call for pricing.

For a country that prides itself on the freedoms it bestows on its citizens, the United States has a surprisingly extensive history of censorship. As Patricia L. Dooley’s Freedom of Speech: Reflections in Art and Popular Culture demonstrates, the arts and pop culture have long been favored targets of censors. Sometimes the censors are private citizens or organizations acting as self-appointed guardians of morality. More ominously, they sometimes are government entities intent on controlling the dissemination and consumption of creative products.

Although the book is a slender 166 pages, the author covers a broad range of artistic forms and instances of censorship. Chapters are devoted to literature, theater, games and sports, music, visual arts, film, fashion, television and radio, and the Internet. Coverage of topics within each chapter begins with the advent of the particular medium or its earliest known introduction in North America and continues to contemporary issues. For example, the chapter dealing with literature begins with an entry on the banning of William Pynchon’s The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption in the 1650s by Massachusetts Bay Puritans. From there, the entries progress into the twenty-first century, covering such topics along the way as the US Post Office’s 1933 confiscation of copies of James Joyce’s Ulysses and the 1950s crusade against comic books, up to the 2003 firing of a high-school teacher due to the content of a student’s slam poetry.

Each chapter begins with a brief general introduction. Entries range in length from a half page to two pages and generally include a discussion of the censors and their motivations, the outcome of the dispute, and the broader ramifications of the dispute. A “Further Reading” section is included at the end of each chapter. This reviewer found no reference resources comparable to this title, so Freedom of Speech: Reflections in Art and Popular Culture is indeed a unique offering, but its usefulness may be limited by the brevity of the entries. Many of the broader subjects covered (such as the backlash against the comic-book industry and heavy metal music) would have benefited from a more in-depth discussion. Due to the brief nature of most entries, this title is recommended mainly for public and K–12 libraries.—Edward Whatley, Instruction and Research Services Librarian, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville