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Book Banning (Book Burning)

Soren

Created on March 11, 2025

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Book Banning (Book Burning)

1600s

Book banning was not as widespread, but it did occur.

2020s

4,240 challenges towards unique titles were reported.

1400s

Johannes Gutenberg invented the first mechanized printing press.

Now

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20xx

Plan

1900s

The first notable widespread bannings (or again, burnings) of books.

1500s

This was the main reason some of the first book bans took place, or book burning.

Book Banning in the 2020s

  • From 2000-2009, books were most commonly banned for sexual topics or offensive language
  • The most challenged series in books was the Captain America series by Dav Pilkey from 2001-2013
  • In 2014, a church started a petition to ban certain books in a library, calling the figurine of Dobby a demonic stuffed animal and the sorting hat figurine a witch's hat
  • In 2013, parents challenged Anne Frank's diary of a Young Girl in a Michigan middle school because of its "pornographic passages"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/krystieyandoli/mind-boggling-facts-about-banned-books-in-america

Did you know that...

Community leaders in the 1600s banned books and literature that challenged the principles of Puritan beliefs. Frequent targets in the first 100 years of America's founding included books challenging religion and slavery

Did you know?

During World War I, ALA’s Library War Service sent banned book lists to military camp libraries on behalf of the War Department. The list included books considered too pacifist, pro-German, or pro-socialist. The librarians then received orders to remove and destroy such books. One letter from ALA directed librarians to keep vigilant against objectionable materials

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2024/09/03/censorship-throughout-the-centuries/

Did you know...

In the 1500s, the Catholic Church established the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" in 1557, which aimed to protect church members from potentially disruptive or heretical books, leading to the banning of thousands of titles and blacklisting publications, including works by intellectual elites

Did you know...

Gutenberg’s system used individual, reusable letters that could be rearranged to create different words and pages. While the original Gutenberg press required much more time and labor than a modern printing press, his innovation dramatically increased printing speed and efficiency, leading to a surge in book production and literacy rates across Europe.

https://www.walsworth.com/blog/history-of-book-printing