Odessa Opera House, in 1942 and Today

in Current Affairs, History | March 7th, 2022

via @KyivPost

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Russian Invasion of Ukraine Teach-Out: A Free Course from the University of Michigan

in Current Affairs, History, Online Courses | March 6th, 2022

From the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan comes a free short course on the Russ­ian Inva­sion of Ukraine. Here’s how they set the con­text for the course, which you can find on the Cours­era plat­form:

“The armed con­flict in Ukraine first start­ed in the begin­ning of 2014, when Rus­sia invad­ed and annexed the Ukrain­ian region of Crimea. Over the past eight years, there has been ongo­ing con­flict between Ukraine and Rus­sia, with reg­u­lar shelling and skir­mish­es occur­ring along Russ­ian and Ukrain­ian bor­ders in the east­ern part of the coun­try. On Feb­ru­ary 24, 2022, Rus­sia launched a full-scale mil­i­tary inva­sion of Ukraine, plung­ing the entire coun­try into war and send­ing shock­waves across the world. With casu­al­ties mount­ing and over one mil­lion Ukraini­ans flee­ing the coun­try, the need for dia­logue and de-esca­la­tion have nev­er been high­er. In this Teach-Out, you will learn from a diverse group of guest experts about the his­to­ry and ori­gins of war in Ukraine, its imme­di­ate and long-term impacts, and what you can do to sup­port peo­ple in this grow­ing human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis. Specif­i­cal­ly this Teach-Out will address the fol­low­ing ques­tions:

- How did we get here? Why did Rus­sia invade Ukraine?
— What his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al con­texts do we need to know about in order to under­stand this con­flict?
— How is cyber and infor­ma­tion war­fare impact­ing the con­flict in Ukraine?
— What can be done to stop this war?
— How can we sup­port Ukrain­ian refugees and dis­placed peo­ples?”

Sign up for the course here.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent 

1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties

Putin’s War on Ukraine Explained in 8 Min­utes

Why Rus­sia Invad­ed Ukraine: A Use­ful Primer

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Ukrainians Playing Violin in Bunkers as Russians Bomb Them from the Sky

in Current Affairs, Music | March 6th, 2022

Vladimir Putin can bomb Ukraine. But he can’t destroy the human spir­it.…

If you would like to sup­port Ukraini­ans in des­per­ate need, vis­it this page to find aid orga­ni­za­tions doing good work on the ground.

For any Russ­ian cit­i­zens vis­it­ing our site, you can see the atroc­i­ties being com­mit­ted by your leader here, here, here, here, here and here. Also find advice on get­ting around Russ­ian cen­sor­ship of media here.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent

Pianist Plays “What a Won­der­ful World” for Ukrain­ian Refugees at Lviv Sta­tion

Russ­ian Inva­sion of Ukraine Teach-Out: A Free Course from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan

Putin’s War on Ukraine Explained in 8 Min­utes

Why Rus­sia Invad­ed Ukraine: A Use­ful Primer

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Russia’s War on Ukraine: A Conversation Hosted by The Atlantic, Featuring Anne Applebaum, Tom Nichols & Jeffrey Goldberg

in Current Affairs, History | March 2nd, 2022

“After years of threats, Vladimir Putin’s Russ­ian forces invad­ed Ukraine—culminating in the largest attack against one Euro­pean state by anoth­er since the Sec­ond World War. What hap­pens now?”

Above, you can watch a wide-rang­ing con­ver­sa­tion host­ed by The Atlantic, fea­tur­ing Anne Apple­baum (Pulitzer-prize win­ning his­to­ri­an), Tom Nichols (U.S. Naval War Col­lege pro­fes­sor), and Jef­frey Gold­berg (edi­tor-in-chief of The Atlantic) as they exam­ine “the glob­al reac­tion, the effec­tive­ness of sanc­tions, and how to address the rise of author­i­tar­i­an­ism and ongo­ing threats to democ­ra­cy.” It’s also worth read­ing Apple­baum’s lat­est piece, “The Impos­si­ble Sud­den­ly Became Pos­si­ble.”

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How Volodymyr Zelenskyy Went from Playing a President on a Comedy TV Show to Very Real Life

in Comedy, Current Affairs, Politics, Television | March 2nd, 2022

To the great dis­may of West Wing fans, Josi­ah Bart­let nev­er actu­al­ly became Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. At some point, one sus­pects they’d even have set­tled for Mar­tin Sheen. Alas, play­ing the role of the pres­i­dent on tele­vi­sion has­n’t yet become a qual­i­fy­ing expe­ri­ence for play­ing it in real life — or at least not in the U.S. But things work dif­fer­ent­ly in Ukraine, which in 2019 elect­ed to its pres­i­den­cy the star of Ser­vant of the Peo­ple (Слуга народу), a com­e­dy series about a high-school teacher who becomes pres­i­dent on the back of an anti-estab­lish­ment rant gone viral. His name, Volodymyr Zelen­skyy, is one we’ve all become famil­iar with indeed since last week, when Russ­ian pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin ordered an inva­sion of his coun­try.

For as unlike­ly a head of state as Zelen­skyy, a more for­mi­da­ble test could hard­ly be imag­ined. The seri­ous­ness of the con­flict con­trasts stark­ly with the tone of Ser­vant of the Peo­ple, in light of which Zelen­skyy’s ascen­dance looks less like Mar­tin Sheen becom­ing Pres­i­dent than Veep’s Julia Louis-Drey­fus becom­ing Vice Pres­i­dent, or Yes Min­is­ter’s Paul Edding­ton becom­ing Prime Min­is­ter.

Still, the past decade’s fur­ther blur­ring of the lines between tele­vi­su­al fic­tion and polit­i­cal fact made the Zelen­skyy can­di­da­cy look less like a stunt than a gen­uine­ly viable cam­paign. Dur­ing that cam­paign the BBC pro­duced the seg­ment at the top of the post, which calls him “the come­di­an who could be Pres­i­dent”; Vice pub­lished the more detailed view above as elec­tion day approached.

Most offi­cials of Zelen­skyy’s rank are famous by def­i­n­i­tion. He had the advan­tage of already being well-known and well-liked in his home­land, but his per­for­mance so far under the har­row­ing con­di­tions of Putin’s inva­sion has won him respect across the world. There is now, in addi­tion to the fas­ci­na­tion about his rise to pow­er, an equal­ly great fas­ci­na­tion about that of Vasyl Holoborod­ko, the thir­ty-some­thing his­to­ry teacher he plays on Ser­vant of the Peo­ple. This Youtube playlist offers 23 episodes of the show, com­plete with Eng­lish sub­ti­tles. Give it a watch, and you’ll bet­ter under­stand not just Zelen­skyy’s appeal to the Ukrain­ian peo­ple, but that peo­ple’s dis­tinc­tive sense of humor — a vital strate­gic asset indeed in such try­ing times.

Relat­ed con­tent:

Why Rus­sia Invad­ed Ukraine: A Use­ful Primer

West Point Expert Gives Ukraini­ans Advice on Con­duct­ing Effec­tive Urban War­fare Against Russ­ian Troops

Why is Ukraine in Cri­sis?: A Quick Primer For Those Too Embar­rassed to Ask (2014)

“Borat” on Pol­i­tics and Embar­rass­ment — Pret­ty Much Pop: A Cul­ture Pod­cast Dis­cus­sion #67

Come­di­ans Speak­ing Truth to Pow­er: Lenny Bruce, George Car­lin & Richard Pry­or (NSFW)

Based in Seoul, Col­in Mar­shall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities, the book The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les and the video series The City in Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.

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Why Russia Invaded Ukraine: A Useful Primer

in Current Affairs, History | February 27th, 2022

Why did Rus­sia launch an unpro­voked war in Ukraine and risk cre­at­ing a wider glob­al con­flict? If you haven’t close­ly tracked the ambi­tions of Vladimir Putin, this primer offers some help­ful con­text. In 30 min­utes, the video cov­ers the geopo­lit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal back­sto­ry. As you watch the explain­er, it’s worth keep­ing one thing in mind: For years, Euro­pean nations have long resist­ed bring­ing Ukraine into the NATO fold, pre­cise­ly because they knew it would trig­ger a con­flict with Putin. And there had been no recent plan to revis­it the issue. All of this sug­gests that Putin has high­light­ed the NATO threat (amply dis­cussed in the video) because it would pro­vide him a use­ful pre­text for an inva­sion. There was hard­ly an immi­nent threat.

If you’re look­ing for oth­er ratio­nales not cov­ered by this video, you could focus on two rea­sons pro­vid­ed by Hein Goe­mans, a pro­fes­sor of polit­i­cal sci­ence at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rochester: Putin “wants to reestab­lish direct­ly or indi­rect­ly, by annex­a­tion or by pup­pet-regimes, a Russ­ian empire—be it the for­mer USSR or Tsarist Rus­sia. A sec­ond pos­si­ble answer has to do with the role of domes­tic Russ­ian pol­i­tics, which the stan­dard lit­er­a­ture on con­flict takes very seri­ous­ly: Putin has seen what hap­pened in some for­mer Sovi­et suc­ces­sor republics and the for­mer Yugoslavia, sev­er­al of which expe­ri­enced ‘Col­or Rev­o­lu­tions’ and democ­ra­tized. Indeed, it was a Col­or Rev­o­lu­tion in Ukraine in 2014, which Putin mis­char­ac­ter­izes as a mil­i­tary coup. He wants to pre­vent more of these rev­o­lu­tions and pre­vent a demo­c­ra­t­ic encir­clement of coun­tries around him, which could pro­vide a safe haven for Russ­ian dis­si­dents who’d be dan­ger­ous to Putin’s polit­i­cal sur­vival. Both of these goals over­lap in the sense that he is seek­ing regime change, which is a dan­ger­ous game.”

For a deep­er dive into the impe­r­i­al ambi­tions of Putin–his attempt to recon­sti­tute the Russ­ian Empire–read this eye-open­ing inter­view with Fiona Hill.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent 

West Point Expert Gives Ukraini­ans Advice on Con­duct­ing Effec­tive Urban War­fare Against Russ­ian Troops

Why is Ukraine in Cri­sis?: A Quick Primer For Those Too Embar­rassed to Ask (2014)

Why Putin Wants Alex­ei Naval­ny Dead

Free Online His­to­ry Cours­es 

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West Point Expert Gives Ukrainians Advice on Conducting Effective Urban Warfare Against Russian Troops

in Current Affairs | February 26th, 2022

John W. Spencer cur­rent­ly serves as the Chair of Urban War­fare Stud­ies at the Mod­ern War Insti­tute at West Point. He’s also Co-Direc­tor of the Urban War­fare Project, and host of the Urban War­fare Project pod­cast. Ergo, he knows some­thing about urban war­fare.

On Twit­ter, he gave advice to civil­ians resis­tors in Ukraine, espe­cial­ly Kyiv, on how to resist the Russ­ian inva­sions. His tweet thread reads as fol­lows:

  1. So I’ve been asked what my advice would be to civil­ian resis­tors in Ukri­ane, espe­cial­ly Kyiv. Some­one with no mil­i­tary train­ing but want­i­ng to resist. Here are a few things #Kyiv #Ukraine­Un­der­At­tack :
  2. You have the pow­er but you have to fight smart. The urban defense is hell for any sol­dier. It usu­al­ly take 5 attack­ers to 1 defend­er. Rus­sians do not have the num­bers. Turn Kyiv and any urban area lead­ing to Kyiv into a por­cu­pine.
  3. Go out and build obsta­cles in the streets! Start with any bridge you can find (they should have been destroyed). Block them with cars, trucks, con­crete, wood, trash, any­thing! Then block any spot in the city where there are tall build­ings on each side. Already tight areas.
  4. If it is a street you still need to use. Build a S pat­tern obsta­cle that still slows a vehi­cle down. Think police check point (which you could set up if you want­ed to catch sabo­teurs before mil­i­tary reach your loca­tion)
  5. Once you have obsta­cles (nev­er stop build­ing). I real­ly mean thou­sands of barriers/obstacles. You can decid­ed places to fight. Places to shoot from or ambush any sol­dier or vehi­cle that stops or slows down at your obsta­cles.
  6. Do NOT stand in the open and shoot or throw any­thing (to include molo­tov cock­tail) at a Russ­ian sol­dier or vehi­cles. Shoot from win­dows, behind cars, around alley­way cor­ners. Build posi­tions (con­crete best) to fire from.
  7. You must pre­pare for the Rus­sians to start using artillery to help their troops. Make sure the places you choose to shoot from are strong. If in a build­ing, make holes in the walls so you can shoot from and big­ger ones to move to oth­er rooms or build­ings. You must sur­vive.
  8. Yes, use your molo­tov cock­tails. Think about where you will stand to throw (then run). Drop­ping from win­dows above vehi­cles most ide­al. Vehi­cles with­out weapons on top the most vul­ner­a­ble, but if it is armor, choose where to hit.
  9. Form into groups. Ide­al­ly 3 to 5 and decid­ed where to shoot at Rus­sians from. You get to decide. Best if coor­di­nat­ed with anoth­er group and using your obsta­cles to slow some­thing and shoot at from con­cealed and pro­tect­ed posi­tions.
  10. Again, your sur­vival to fight is impor­tant so think hard about where you will shoot from. Ele­vat­ed posi­tions down long streets. Shoot and run. Ambush­es. Aim for the win­dows and doors of non-armor vehi­cles. Sol­diers in open. One of the great­est fears of a sol­dier is a sniper.
  11. You are not a sniper, but you can put fear in their hearts if they think there are snipers every­where. Again take care of your­selves to be able to resist. Drink water. 3 days with­out water and you won’t be able to fight. More lat­er.

Rough Ukrain­ian Trans­la­tion (Cour­tesy of Google Trans­late):

  1. Тож мене запитали, що б я порадив цивільним резисторам в Україні, особливо в Києві. Хтось без військової підготовки, але хоче чинити опір. Ось кілька речей #Kyiv #Ukraine­Un­der Attack :
  2. У вас є сила, але ви повинні боротися розумно. Міська оборона — це пекло для будь-якого солдата. Зазвичай потрібно 5 нападників на 1 захисника. У росіян немає цифр. Перетворіть Київ і будь-яку міську територію, що веде до Києва, на дикобраза.
  3. Виходьте і будуйте перешкоди на вулицях! Почніть з будь-якого мосту, який ви можете знайти (їх слід було знищити). Блокуйте їх автомобілями, вантажівками, бетоном, деревом, сміттям, чим завгодно! Потім заблокуйте будь-яке місце в місті, де з обох боків є високі будівлі. Вже тісні ділянки.
  4. Якщо це вулиця, вам все одно потрібно користуватися. Побудуйте перешкоду типу S, яка все ще уповільнює транспортний засіб. Уявіть поліцейський контрольно-пропускний пункт (який ви можете встановити, якщо хочете зловити диверсантів до того, як військові прибудуть до вашого місця)
  5. Як тільки у вас є перешкоди (ніколи не припиняйте будувати). Я дійсно маю на увазі тисячі бар’єрів/перешкод. Ви можете визначити місця для боротьби. Місця для стрілянини або засідки будь-якого солдата чи транспортного засобу, які зупиняються або сповільнюються на ваших перешкодах.
  6. Do NOT stand in the open and shoot or throw any­thing (to include molo­tov cock­tail) at a Russ­ian sol­dier or vehi­cles. Shoot from win­dows, behind cars, around alley­way cor­ners. Build posi­tions (con­crete best) to fire from.
  7. Ви повинні підготуватися до того, що росіяни почнуть використовувати артилерію для допомоги своїм військам. Переконайтеся, що місця, з яких ви обираєте стріляти, є міцними. Якщо в будівлі, зробіть отвори в стінах, щоб ви могли стріляти з більших, щоб переміститися в інші кімнати або будівлі. Ви повинні вижити.
  8. Так, використовуйте свої коктейлі Молотова. Подумайте, куди ви будете стояти, щоб кинути (тоді бігти). Найідеальнішим варіантом є падіння з вікон над транспортними засобами. Транспорт без зброї зверху найбільш вразливий, але якщо це броня, вибирайте, куди вдарити.
  9. Об’єднайтеся в групи. В ідеалі 3 до 5 і вирішив, звідки стріляти в росіян. Вам вирішувати. Найкраще, якщо координуватись з іншою групою та використовувати свої перешкоди, щоб уповільнити щось і стріляти з прихованих і захищених позицій.
  10. Знову ж таки, ваше виживання для боротьби важливе, тому добре подумайте, звідки ви будете стріляти. Піднесені позиції на довгих вулицях. Стріляй і бігай. Засідки. Націлюйтеся на вікна та двері неброньованих транспортних засобів. Солдати відкрито. Один з найбільших страхів солдата — снайпер.
  11. Ви не снайпер, але можете вселити в їхні серця страх, якщо вони думають, що снайпери всюди. Знову подбайте про себе, щоб мати можливість протистояти. Пити воду. 3 дні без води і ти не зможеш битися. Ще пізніше.

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The 850 Books a Texas Lawmaker Wants to Ban Because They Could Make Students Feel Uncomfortable

in Current Affairs | December 22nd, 2021

“Who’s afraid of crit­i­cal race the­o­ry?” asked lawyer, legal schol­ar and Har­vard pro­fes­sor Der­rick Bell in a 1995 essay. Bell helped pio­neer the dis­ci­pline in the 70s, and until recent­ly, it remained most­ly con­fined to aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals, grad school sem­i­nars and the pages of pro­gres­sive mag­a­zines. Now the phrase is every­where. What hap­pened? Did rad­i­cal schol­ars force third graders to read foot­notes? Or did con­ser­v­a­tives show up fifty years late to a con­ver­sa­tion, skip the read­ing, and decide the best way to respond was to lash out indis­crim­i­nate­ly at every iden­ti­ty and civ­il rights issue that makes them uncom­fort­able, start­ing with kinder­garten and work­ing their way up? Maybe Bell’s ques­tion has answered itself.

In the recent moral pan­ic over CRT, the term has become a denun­ci­a­tion, a shib­bo­leth that can apply to any his­to­ry, civics, or lit­er­a­ture les­son broad­ly con­strued, whether taught through cur­rent events, fic­tion, poet­ry, mem­oir, non­fic­tion, or any mate­r­i­al — to use the lan­guage of the “anti-CRT” Texas House Bill 3979 — that might make a stu­dent “feel dis­com­fort, guilt, anguish, or any oth­er form of psy­cho­log­i­cal dis­tress on account of the individual’s race or sex.” Con­nec­tions to Bel­l’s crit­i­cal race the­o­ry are ten­u­ous, at best. As Allyson Waller notes at the Texas Tri­bune, that aca­d­e­m­ic dis­ci­pline “is not being taught in K‑12 schools.”

This fact means lit­tle to right wing leg­is­la­tors, school board mem­bers and par­ents’ groups, who have found a con­ve­nient boogey­man on which to project their anx­i­eties. What the Texas bill means in prac­tice has been impos­si­ble to parse. Amer­i­can Civ­il Lib­er­ties Union lawyer Emer­son Sykes filed a fed­er­al suit over a sim­i­lar law in Okla­homa, argu­ing that it’s “so vague,” as Michael Pow­ell reports at The New York Times, “that it fails to pro­vide rea­son­able legal guid­ance to teach­ers and could put jobs in dan­ger.” A Black prin­ci­pal near Dal­las has already been forced to resign in the anti-CRT pan­ic, for writ­ing a pub­lic let­ter after George Floy­d’s death that declared, “Edu­ca­tion is the key to stomp­ing out igno­rance, hate, and sys­temic racism.”

In anoth­er part of the state, a dis­trict-lev­el exec­u­tive direc­tor of cur­ricu­lum has rec­om­mend­ed teach­ing “oth­er per­spec­tives” on the Holo­caust to meet the bil­l’s man­dates. Teach­ers and admin­is­tra­tors are not the only ones tar­get­ed by the bill and its sup­port­ers. “One minute they’re talk­ing crit­i­cal race the­o­ry,” says mid­dle school librar­i­an Car­rie Damon. “Sud­den­ly I’m hear­ing librar­i­ans are indoc­tri­nat­ing stu­dents. One library in Llano Coun­ty, about 80 miles north­west of Austin, shut down for three days for a “thor­ough review” of every chil­dren’s book. At the statewide lev­el, Texas Repub­li­can State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Krause launched an anti-CRT witch-hunt, in advance of a run for State Attor­ney Gen­er­al, by email­ing a list 850 books to state super­in­ten­dents, ask­ing if any of them appeared in their libraries.

The list, writes Dani­ka Ellis at Book Riot, is “a bizarre assort­ment of titles, for­mat­ted in a way that sug­gests it’s copy-and-past­ed from library list­ings.” It includes books about human rights, sex edu­ca­tion, any and every LGBTQ top­ic, race, Amer­i­can his­to­ry, and polic­ing. Iron­i­cal­ly, it also includes books about burn­ing books and bul­ly­ing (a prob­lem caus­ing stu­dent walk­outs around the coun­try). The books range from those for young chil­dren to mid­dle and high school stu­dents and col­lege-aged young adults. Most of them “were writ­ten by women, peo­ple of col­or and LGBTQ writ­ers.” It also includes “a par­tic­u­lar­ly puz­zling choice,” writes Pow­ell (prob­a­bly a mis­take?): Cyn­i­cal The­o­ries by Helen Pluck­rose and James Lind­say, two authors who have made careers out of expos­ing what they allege are ille­git­i­mate “griev­ances” in acad­e­mia.

You can see Krause’s full list here. The state rep’s “motive was unclear,” Pow­ell writes, but it seems clear enough he wished to flag these books for pos­si­ble removal. Giv­en that crit­i­cal race the­o­ry is not, in fact, a phrase that means “any­thing that makes con­ser­v­a­tives feel guilty and/or uncom­fort­able” but is fore­most a legal the­o­ry, we might ask legal ques­tions like cui bono? – “who ben­e­fits” from ban­ning the books on Krause’s list? Who feels uncom­fort­able and guilty when they read about racist polic­ing, healthy gay rela­tion­ships, or the civ­il rights move­ment– and why? Should that dis­com­fort pro­vide just cause for cen­sor­ship and the vio­la­tion of oth­er stu­dents’ rights to qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion­al mate­r­i­al? How can the sub­jec­tive stan­dard of “com­fort” be used to eval­u­ate the edu­ca­tion­al val­ue of a book?

Debates over free inquiry in edu­ca­tion seem nev­er to end. (Con­sid­er that the first book banned in Colo­nial North Amer­i­ca mocked the Puri­tans, who them­selves loved noth­ing more than ban­ning things.) As we approach the ques­tion this time around, it seems we might have learned not to ban books under vague laws that empow­er big­ots to hunt down an amor­phous ene­my so insid­i­ous it can lurk any­where and every­where. Such laws have their own his­to­ry, too, in the U.S. and else­where. Nowhere have they led to a state of affairs most of us want, one free from vio­lence, big­otry, dis­crim­i­na­tion and state repres­sion — that is, unless we need such things to make us com­fort­able.

via Book Riot

Relat­ed Con­tent:  

America’s First Banned Book: Dis­cov­er the 1637 Book That Mocked the Puri­tans

Read 14 Great Banned & Cen­sored Nov­els Free Online: For Banned Books Week 2014

It’s Banned Books Week: Lis­ten to Allen Gins­berg Read His Famous­ly Banned Poem, “Howl,” in San Fran­cis­co, 1956

When L. Frank Baum’s Wiz­ard of Oz Series Was Banned for “Depict­ing Women in Strong Lead­er­ship Roles” (1928)

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness

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