FLI: Policing Pages - The American Classics

Join Professor Strandberg and Joseph (Joe) Salem, University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs, virtually tomorrow, as they discuss the history of banned books.

Grapes of Wrath, Walden, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Adventures of Tom Sawyer. What some call great American literature, others deem despicable, immoral, or profane. Using the American classics like those penned by Steinbeck, Salinger, Twain, Walker, and Vonnegut for context, we will explore the challenges around banning books - censorship of language, access restrictions, removal of texts from the classroom - and uncover how contempt by some and celebration by others of these written works changed our perspectives on free speech and educational freedoms from the 1800s to today.